Board 8 > Raetsel and the Alts finish ranking 784 songs [+ Bonus Songs]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Now entering 80-89.99~ Tier

And onward to songs that, while not at the absolute highest tier, are still things that I kinda love anyway. While I did really like everything on the previous tier, those were songs that I wouldn't quite say I loved, in contrast to everything from this point onward.

As stated, I'm just going to go with two more songs today to reach the top 140 and hopefully get things in a position to run smoothly for the rest of the main ranking. As always, thank you all for your continued patience and understanding.

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#142: Cloud Cult - When Water Comes to Life (3:47):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-fTN4kYgGo

Nominator: ZaziGuado [5/28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 50.66
Revised Score: 50.48
Final Score: 80.00 [Upgraded to 80.00000009]

(First Reaction: I'm going to have to spend time thinking on this one.)

Amazing insight as always from past Raetsel. Thinking a bit harder (or at all), I feel like this just isn't the type of vaguely spiritual song that I'm into. All this talk about angels, and returning to the water, and being water, and becoming one with everything:

You'll be a stranger, and you'll be a friend
You'll be the leper, and you'll be the healer
You'll be the hero, and the tragedy

Just don't really appeal to me. I can sorta see the appeal, but I just find myself bouncing off of it. I think in terms of spiritual songs like this, metaphors about innocence and inner children work better--see "Return To Innocence" or "In the House of Stone and Light" for some examples. And I can't really tell you why Cloud Cult's song doesn't work for me; I'd love to give an easy answer like "after bad experiences with religion, I'm not really into songs referencing angels", but there's plenty of songs with angels or explicit Christian themes I love. Or something like "my distaste for being underwater has been spoken of at length; I like being rained on or being adjacent to water, I do not like being in water or being made of water", but while that would be a fun explanation and something I'd say, that's really not it either. The clearest I can put it is that the lyrics and metaphors feel "wrong" somehow?

...Or I just don't like them for unexplained reasons or something. Whatever it is, this song is interesting in a "I like trying to figure out why I'm not enjoying it much" way, but not interesting enough I become obsessed with it and metaphorically evaluate it under a microscope to find the source of my feelings. So it's just... kinda... in an "I like it more than songs I have no opinion on" type place.

[Final Thoughts: Ehh... there's a lot of memories and flashbacks associated with this song right now. Not sure if I'll share any of them or not, so here's a generic placeholder message.]

[Later, though still way before the list actually got up to this space: Going to move this song up a teeny-tiny bit, because I want it over any song that gets exactly 80 points.]

[Later: Let's just say someone who was important to me had a spiritual philosophy that this song vaguely reminds me of. So the memories can be a bit much.... I kinda love the song for all the flashbacks it's triggering, but I also... kinda... don't always want to process those particular feelings, which leaves the song with a rather volatile score.]

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#141: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - Eternal (4:03):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtPwUgBX1V4

Nominator: Dragon66116 [1/12 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.44
Revised Score: 70.00
Final Score: 80.0004

(First Reaction: I can't say I expected to ever hear Eternal Champions music being sampled, but I like it. )

!Good flow, great choice of sample, moving it up a tier.

[Final Thoughts: No lyrics or specific moments I'd like to draw attention to, but the backing music is amazing & the flow here is fantastic. I kinda love this track.]

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Raetsel_Lapin posted...

That is likely a personal failure if anything, but it certainly wasn't meant to be a knock on the song...

I definitely didn't see it that way, especially since your last word was "Fantastic"!

I think I first heard Story 2 when I was in the early stages of learning and getting excited about music with interesting time signatures. Rather than read that post, you could also listen out for the little repeating electronic blip in the song and count the beats between... basically, the number of beats keeps increasing by one and the rap adapts to match. I find it so neat!

On Light My Candle: Wow! I'm really happy to read that you even took a chance on the film version due to being intrigues by Roger and Mimi. It's slightly ironic that you ended up liking songs by the other couples more, but I can definitely respect that opinion! I just don't personally like the songs as much.

On Eva Beware of the City: I forgot I nominated this song out of all the songs in the soundtrack, but I'm glad I did and glad that you liked it decently. Looking back, it's probably because I want to bring awareness to numbers like these that aren't as popular as other songs from Evita. Though, yeah, it is pretty short...

sergiocornaga posted...

Rather than read that post, you could also listen out for the little repeating electronic blip in the song and count the beats between... basically, the number of beats keeps increasing by one and the rap adapts to match. I find it so neat!

I shall try. I'll also add "Kanye West - Spaceship" & "El-P - Dear Sirs" since the article used those as examples of some things--the latter being used as a negative example, but still likely helpful as a result.

Also, while this isn't related to you, I'll be adding a note to try another song or two from Touche Amore after this ends since they seemed to have a lot of potential from that one song.

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Five songs to start with, featuring our second two-way tie & a double drop from Bane:

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#140: Every Time I Die - We Go Together (5:02):
https://open.spotify.com/track/3thnHAghc8c6bibG7cRPMg?si=719cf95085a14cd2

Nominator: Bane [6/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Revised Score: 77.77
Final Score: 80.02

(First Reaction: *before listening* I know this song isn't going to be a metalcore cover of the song from Grease, but I really wish it were. I never knew how much I wanted to hear Keith Buckley scream "Like dip da-dip da-dip doo-wop da doo-bee doo!!!!!" until now and I'm sad that we live in this stupid universe in which it'll never happen.

*after listening* This may actually be better than that hypothetical gag song would have been Wasn't expecting that.)

!Some lyrics here that I dig & I'm still on a bit of a metalcore kick at the time of this writeup, so I'm actually rather okay with the screaming--typically I go for the more melodic examples of metalcore, but right now, I kinda want some screaming. Good time for this song to come up.

[Final Thoughts: "Shut up and suffer, there's no other way to exist"... yep, that's the type of line I want to hear screamed right now. This song will do quite nicely.]

[Later: There's a lot to love in this song. Besides the quoted line, the repeated refrain of "I find it a little strange that I haven't died" is quite pleasing. And some other things I'd rather not get into right now; quite a neat song.]

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#138 [TIE]: Frank Zappa - Truck Driver Divorce [9:06]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFXVEo0G6Mk

Nominator: Lasa [1/14 Remaining]

Initial Score: 57.04
Revised Score: 57.999
Final Score: 65.38 [Upgraded to 70.17] [Upgraded to 70.57] [Upgraded to 73.11] [Upgraded to 74,299] [Upgraded to 75.06] [Upgraded to 76.06] [Upgraded to 76.39] [Upgraded to 77.26] [Placed Into Void] [Upgraded to 80.03]

(First Reaction: Definitely one of the more unexpected tracks. It starts off as this goofy, cartoony comedic song only to run out of lyrics incredibly early in the runtime & go full psychedelic instrumental. It is quite the jarring transition (in a very good way), though I feel the novelty of the song doesn't hold out for the entire duration. It was mind-blowing for the first five minutes or so, but it just kept going... I suppose that certainly contributes to the "doing drugs while you continue driving your truck down the same endless roads, completely alone after your divorce, with no words left to say... the pills as your only solace from the eternal tedium and loneliness, but even they've become dull. As your tolerance to the effects grow, you find yourself becoming numb to everything, but "numb" is better than whatever the hell you'd become if you ever had to face reality sober" vibe that I hope the song was going for, but... well "bored & numb" isn't exactly a feeling I'm keen to revisit. Not for the duration of this song anyway.

...also, I was really expecting the sound of a fatal car crash at the end of the song there, as a more definitive ending than slowly fading out into eternity.)

!Weird and oddly fascinating, but the trippy drugged out instrumental goes on so long that I'm kinda done with things by the five minute mark and I'm not sure the last four minutes really offers anything else to the song.

[Final Thoughts: Another song where I'm not entirely sure why it was down so low on the list. It's not the most egregious of the "songs that were ranked in the 57 point range when they obviously needed to be well above it, seriously, just looking at the title and judging how interested I was in hearing the song again proves how much I liked it & that it definitely should not be below the 60 point tier" category... I mean, there were three 57.XX songs that were moved up today, but one of them got bounced all the way up to the mid-70's. This is a significant upgrade to the score, but not that ridiculous.

...I suppose talking about how other songs are better is bizarrely cruel for this writeup and I didn't mean it that way. It was more "wow, why were so many songs I like & really like hanging out at the 57 point level??" statement that went awry somewhere. Either way, this is a neat song! Very comedic & then very psychadelic. I dig it. I do kinda wish it stopped around the six minute mark as I feel I've gotten the full experience by then, but still, I like it a fair amount.]

[Later: Perhaps a bit long, but I'd say I generally really liked this and would feel better moving it up a tier.]

[Still Later: I dunno. I do really like this and the first four minutes are better than anything else ranked around this song , but it just... kinda... forgets to end... and I know why that works here, but it's still a bit much. I'm... going to move this up a bit, but I did hesitate for quite a while.]

[Later: I'll raise this up to 73 points, I think. I do really like this more than the songs at 70 points, though as I've said endlessly, I do wish there was a bit more brevity to this track.]

[Later: Ehh... let's go with one more point.]

[Later: Taking this up to 75 points.]

[Later: Let's try one more point again.]

[Later: And a bit of a boost for reorganization purposes. I do really like this and kinda love the trippy instrumental, but that extra three or four minutes at the end can be a bit much.]

[Later:....Ehhh... maybe another point?]

[Later: Just... go into the pile of null value songs for a bit while I think. I don't want to cut this, but I don't know if I can say that I "kinda love" it when it feels a bit long... but maybe I do, or maybe... I'll worry about it tomorrow.]

[Later: Okay, I think I do kinda love this. The intro of the song is starting to get a bit old after all these listens, but the psychedelic & trippy instrumental is always a true delight. I still don't think it holds up for the entire duration, but I kinda love most of the song--enough to at least have it as an early 80s song instead of a high 70s one.]

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#138 [TIE]: Sigur Rs - Hopppolla (4:29):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=559un6zgVq4

Nominator: ZaziGuado [4/28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Revised Score: 90.00
Final Score: 80.014 [Upgraded to 80.03]

(First Reaction: Oh hey, there's the original version that the other song (Poppiholla) was a trance remix of. This is so much better.)

!Powerful.

[Final Thoughts: Link's dead, but this seems to be a high quality version of the song. It's a very innocent song celebrating the purity of childhood, along with some beautiful and powerful music which can be overwhelming at times. I am... less in the mood for this message right now, but it's so amazing that I still kinda love it.]

[Later: I find it interesting that this song is always at the start of whatever tier it finds itself in. It's been the start of the "really like" tier, the start of the "love" tier, and finally wound up between the two at the start of "kinda love". But as much as the score changes, it never winds up near the middle or end of a tier. Anyway, here's a minor boost to move this into a tie with Truck Driver Divorce. It's another case where I can't quite make up my mind between the two songs... in the case of "beauty VS psychedelic guitar", I find myself going back-and-forth so many times this morning that I'm just going to call that match a draw.]

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#137: Philippe Katerine - Patouseul [3:07]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td8b7R_5LXc

Nominator: cakophon [1/20 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 60.003
Final Score: 68.80050 [Upgraded to 69.529] [Upgraded to 70.076] [Upgraded to "something"] [Something set to 80.06]

(First Reaction:

here's a dog following a garbage truck
He looks like a jerk

I am more amused by that autotranslated line than I should be. Pretty good song, I like it.)

!Funny enough to get a teeny-tiny little boost above the CLUMP.

[Final Thoughts: A surprisingly catchy tune that I'm rather digging tonight.]

[Later: Very catchy chorus, I'm going to move this one up a little further.]

[Later, the same day: Okay, now I'm willing to take this up a tier.]

[Later: Moving this aside for a little while. I don't think I'll move it too far up the list, but it is oddly compelling and I want to wait a while.]

[Later: I keep starting to eliminate this and deciding not to at the last second. How far up is this going to go before it even has a score??]

[Later: Yeah, I'll take this up a tier. I'm starting to kinda love this one.]

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#136: Dorian Electra, The Garden, Quay Dash, d0llywood1 - F The World (3:27):
https://open.spotify.com/track/6sXwm0rdUS07s5sGZd11Jd?si=97bb6c234f30407f

Nominator: Bane [5/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 57.46
Revised Score: 54.61
Final Score: 54.63 [Upgraded to 55.00] [Upgraded to 57.46] [Upgraded to 59.396] [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 64.32] [Upgraded to 64.83] [Upgraded to "something"] [Something set to 68.06] [Upgraded to 70.83] [Upgraded to 71.83] [Upgraded to 73.00] [Upgraded to 73.0000003] [Upgraded to 73.17] [Upgraded to Something] [Upgraded to 80.096]

(First Reaction: I kinda wish this song had been around for my first ranking topic, when I was obsessed with all types of vocal distortion and anything strange. Alas, since this song wasn't even released back then, that would have been impossible without breaking the space-time continuum (which would be fun, but should probably be saved for more productive uses than altering music ranking topics).

This is a rather abrassive song, which goes quite hard on the harshness and distortions, resulting in a complex song that's a lot to take in. The large number of guest vocalists also creates an environment where you're never sure what's coming up. It's all rather charming and I like it, but probably not as much as I would have when sentences like that implied a guaranteed high ranking. Curse the linear flow of time!)

!The first part of the song is really not something I enjoy (right now, it's too thumping for me), but when some of the guest vocalists come in during the second half then the track goes hard & becomes quite enjoyable. It's like the song bounces between 30 points & 60 points, so I'm moving it towards the mid-50's... a bit of a middleground between the two extremes.

[Final Thoughts: Some of the segments here are pretty great, particularly the last two guest singers really knock it out of the park, but most of the song is a bit too thumping and abrasive for my current tastes.]

[Later: I.... feel like adding a few extra points to this tonight suddenly. Revising back to the Initial Score for a moment.]

[Later: A couple extra points.]

[Later: Yeah, let's go ahead and move it to the Neo Clump like everything else.]

[Later: There are a fair number of points where the backing music goes full THUMP-THUMP-THUMP one note blandness, but I think I really like most of what the song's doing. Going to move this up a few more points for a bit.]

[Later: Very minor upgrade.]

[Later: That part starting at 36 seconds is painful. But there are also parts that I kinda love. I don't know what to do with this song. Just... go join those other songs with a null value and I'll figure it out later. Hopefully.]

pLater: ...68 points, maybe?p

&later: An an upgrade to the next tier.&

qLater: One more point.q

[Later: Up to 73 points.]

[Later: I kinda love the last two guests' verses, but I don't *think* I love them enough to move this song any further up the list. It's definitely had a good run though.]

[Marginally Later: Ehhhh.... one final little boost for reorganization purposes.]

[A few moments later: I really don't know. I'm not a fan of Dorian Elektra's parts, but love the guests' portions. I guess I'll try adding this back to the null-value group and try finding a score later.]

[Later: Enough high points to this song that I'll say I kinda love it, but I'm pretty sure this is as far as it goes. It also now holds the record for highest number of Upgrades and I'd be shocked if anything else managed to take that title.]

[Later: The next to last guest singer's lyrics are brilliantly dark, angry, and angsty. Definitely the type of thing I'm looking for; the rest of the song doesn't quite live up to its heights, but it's an enjoyable enough listen that it's welcome at this tier.]

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More songs in the late afternoon/evening.

It's funny you talk about a musical in We Go Together's writeup, as I consider that song the closest example of if Every Time I Die decided to write a rock opera song of sorts, I love how theatrical and varied it is.

And I highly recommend checking out the F the World music video if you haven't yet, it's super fun!

truck driver divorce actually isn't that unusual by zappa standards, there's plenty of songs where he starts playing an extremely long guitar solo that has nothing to do with the rest of the song out of nowhere haha.

anyway, glad you ended up liking it so much, even if you think it overstayed its welcome! "it's too long" is a very common complaint about zappa solos. i don't always disagree, there's definitely solos where he just noodles on and on and on while going absolutely nowhere. the TDD solo isn't one of those solos for me, though. i love it from start to finish!

i think zappa was at his best as a guitarist in '81 and '82 and his solo in this song (from '81) is a good example of his playing style in this era. (most zappa fans think he was at his guitar playing peak in the late '70s, though.)

edit: also, interesting how you associated the guitar solo part with the lyrics. i never thought about it that way but zappa was definitely a "the music reflects the story told in the lyrics" kind of composer, so it's absolutely a valid interpretation.

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

And I highly recommend checking out the F the World music video if you haven't yet, it's super fun!

I did and I'm jealous of how cute they are, but the video cuts a full minute from the song--including my favorite parts--so I only watched it once.

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Mr_Lasastryke posted...

(most zappa fans think he was at his guitar playing peak in the late '70s, though.)

I may try finding something from that era eventually then, for comparison's sake.

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Last five of the day:

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#135: Elton John - Bennie and the Jets (Official Lyric Video) (5:39):
https://youtu.be/aPUgfmjW-ns

Nominator: Metalmind [12/25 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 64.729
Final Score: 70.49 [Upgraded to 80.07] [Upgraded to 80.1143]

(First Reaction: The addition of a spoken word intro and a faint cheering crowd... err, wait, was the crowd added for the video or was that always here? My memories are getting scrambled again, let me check the version on Spotify.

*checks*

Right, right, that crowd noise was always there -but- the intro wasn't & there's also some weird, sci-fi buzzing noises added to the track which just makes this track weird--compare the bit starting at 3:30 to the official version and there's now noise added for no Earthly reason I can find. Pun semi-intended. And a slow, vaguely ominous and space-y outro.

Well, you've definitely taken a song I know and twisted expectations by nominating this video, and I can't tell if that's good or bad. Or if it even matters, as the changes are so relatively minor that I don't think they notably change the experience all that much. But it's still kinda weird--seriously, listen to that beeping at 3:30, that is a weird addition to make to this song. I'm going to just throw this into the Clump of 60 point songs and worry about it later.)

!I'm pretty sure I prefer the regular version, but it was interesting to try and judge this video with its added intro, outro, & sound-effects. It's also been fun trying to guess if you were aware of the changes to the song in this video or if it's all a coincidence... like, I'm guessing you just went with the first official video you found, but I've expressed a lot of love for spoken word intros and outer-space ambiance before so this *could* be a very calculated play on your part. It's been a fun time either way.

[Final Thoughts: I could swap to a standard version of the song if I felt it would improve the score in a notable way, but I'm more interested in how the video is simultaneously way out there & also relatively tame with how little difference it makes to the song. Either way, I really like Elton John, so I'm going to move this song up a tier; it's a bit overplayed, but whatever.]

[Later: Like we were ever going to let Elton John be eliminated this early. Which of us gave that score? I'm moving this one up an entire tier, none of this giving very minor increases ten times in a row for this song.]

[Later: I kinda love this song, with or without its intro & bizarre beeping sounds added. Adding a minor boost to this song's score to rearrange things a bit.]

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#134: Driftmoon feat. Merethe Soltvedt- Until It's Over (4:26):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JALQp8HUD4

Nominator: DoctorJimmy [3/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 77.059
Revised Score: 80.00
Final Score: 80.00 [Upgraded to 80.1145]

(First Reaction: Stupendous.

...that's it, that's the reaction.)

!Leaving the writeup at "Stupendous" amuses me.

[Final Thoughts: You know those songs where you actively don't want to discuss them because there's a certain pure beauty to the music that can only be destroyed by analyzing it? This is one of those songs.]

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#133: Yelle - C'est pas une vie (3:35):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ProknBAt9EI&list=PLR2ATVrSGTX91hJXNoWIHovzSIqVNBM8u&index=3

Nominator: hotdogturtle [2/14 Remaining]

Initial Score: 30.00
Revised Score: 48.199
Final Score: 50.23 [Upgraded to 50.35] [Upgraded to 56.15] [Upgraded to 57.76] [Upgraded to 67.291] [Upgraded to 69.26] [Upgraded to 70.86] [Upgraded to 72.334] [Upgraded to 74.27] [Upgraded to 80.116]

(First Reaction: Well... I like the lyrics, or at least one translation of the lyrics:

It's not a life, the life we live
When we don't live the life we want
Haven't I already told you?
I think you deserve better
Than me and you

There's that blunt sadness and doomed relationship talk that tends to appeal to me... but I find the music on this track to be rather grating, to a point that I'd be happier just muting the video and reading the lyrics in silence. Very nice lyrics though.)

The lyrical dissonance here doesn't quite work for me on this track. The song is just too peppy and the notes in the opening are oddly reminiscent of Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm8LH3bHClw

Obviously the songs are not similar, at all, but those opening notes of C'est inspire flashbacks to Sweet Soul Music that are so intense that it's rather jarring. (I'm also not really a big fan of Sweet Soul Music, which may as well be titled "a list of better songs and more famous artists you could be listening to instead of this"--and while I can praise his Splendid Humility {no one got that reference, but if I stop to explain it then we're going to become trapped in an endless amount of parenthetical statements even worse than the current one}, I wish his biggest hit said something about him personally or had a bit more substance to it...)

Aaanywho....

Well, that was certainly a detour, but I think we're back to the main writeup. While I do appreciate getting a French pop song for some variety and there are some great lyrics here, the music itself is mildly irksome in its bounciness. A bounciness that quite actively prevents me from fully enjoying the lyrics to begin with. I'd say the initial score was too low and my opinion is much close to total neutrality than dislike, but it's still not quite for me.

[Final Thoughts: A "Phoebe and her Unicorn" reference? I haven't read that comic in almost a year... oh yeah, it has taken that long to reach this point, hasn't it? Wow.

The opening does not even remotely remind me of Sweet Soul Music now, rendering the above paragraphs completely incomprehensible. More so than usual, I mean.

This song is "fine". Some nice lyrics and French pop is a nice enough genre. It's still a bit too light, boncy, and carefree musically but there are enough parts that I kinda dig that I feel good moving this up above the 50 point line.]

[Later: One of those songs that got stuck in my head repeatedly at the last minute and I'm kinda into this these days. Going up a tier.]

[Later: ...Well, I like Sweet Soul Music, which raises further questions...]

[To Be Continued: Well, I like this song today. Let's go up a tier with it.]

[Later: Let's go up to 69 points for a while.]

[To Be Concluded: I actually really like most of this song nowadays, but that section starting at 1:50 is rather unpleasant... though it is only about ten seconds long.... I suppose I do really like this song, as of late. Going up a tier.]

[Later: A bit extra to the 72 point zone.]

[Later: I'm going to go up to 74 points. It's really weird how my reaction to this song keeps shifting, but "sad bop" seems like something I'm pretty into at this exact moment.]

[Later Trying to keep my thoughts straight is impossible when we run into things like this song where depending on the day it either reminds me of a song I dislike, a song I like (which is the same song I disliked), or doesn't remind me of anything. All of which are somehow both true and false, depending on where I am mentally when the song plays.

....Aaanywho, I think I kinda love this these days? Moving this one up to the next tier.[

[Later: (For anyone keeping track, I'm currently in whichever headspace likes Sweet Soul Music. It's not a favorite, but it's memorable & catchy & inoffensive... I know rattling off a list of other musicians isn't exactly a thrilling lyrical concept, but it's neat enough for a short little bop.)]

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#132: Grimes - Kill V. Maim (4:06):
https://open.spotify.com/track/3WXhshrs1fzwF3rQE399Gq?si=ceac7dd205e74d73

Nominator: Player_0 [4/33 Remaining]

Initial Score: 59.46
Revised Score: 54.67
Final Score: 52.203 [Upgraded to 54.67] [Upgraded to 55.00000001] [Upgraded to 60.12] [Upraded to 66.49] [Upgraded to 70.73] [Upgraded to 74.26] [Upgraded to 80.117]

(First Reaction:

Kill V. Maim is written from the perspective of Al Pacino in The Godfather Pt II. Except hes a vampire who can switch gender and travel through space.

I can't tell if she just enjoys messing with anyone who seeks meaning in her songs or if she's almost as far gone as I am, but I'm far more excited by this concept than I should be. Sadly, there's no vampirism or space travel or gender switching in the song itself, and now I feel kinda cheated.

The song itself is odd... it's this pop metal cheerleader villain song, which I like. It's not quite what it was billed as, but i still like it.)

!Now that the novelty of the song's explanation has worn off, I have to question how much I actually like the song VS how much I liked the image that description was creating. I still kinda like the song, but the lyrics are a bit repetitive & "metal cheerleading" is.... unique enough to be interesting, but not something I'll probably come back to often. Moving this down towards the middle of the 50's.

[Final Thoughts: The nonsensical description paints this as the greatest song of all time, but there's barely any attempt to actually deliver on it. Don't promise me a gender fluid vampire mobster in space & give me cheerleading.]

[Later: Moving this one back up to its Revised Score for a bit.]

[And Again: I've had the chorus stuck in my head lately and feel like upgrading this slightly past the 55 point mark.]

[And Again, And Again: I... don't know, but I'm thinking I actually like this. Somehow.]

[AA, AA, AA: Take a few more points while we're at it.]

[And Again, For All Eternity: Alright, I think I'm ready to take this song up a tier this time.]

[Eternally Later: I'm adding a few more points.It can feel repetitive at points, but what's here is strangely captivating.]

[Later: Eh, I do kinda love the cheerleading adventures of the non-binary vampire, I suppose.]

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And the last song of the day, which gets a post all to itself because there just wasn't room for it earlier:

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#131: hololive ID - Indonesian Folk Medley (2:38):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQW5S_xH1o

Nominator: @Raka_Putra [11/31]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 65.78
Final Score: 59.93 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 61.583] [Upgraded to 65.78] [Upgraded to 69.58] [Upgraded to 70.72] [Upgraded to 80.118]

(First Reaction: Well, this was a treat! I obviously don't have any exposure to traditional music from other cultures, so a quick medley of five new songs is a welcome addition--I don't usually like medleys that much, but in this instance, I think it works. Though as with all medleys, it runs into the problem where there's always one part I like more than the others and want more of; I really enjoy the final song (Apuse) and wish this was a full version of it...

Cublak Cublak Suweng is something I'm going to assume is equally confusing in its original language? Jewelry sniffing buffalo and imposters with souls like empty soybean pods... I get the feeling this is just a children's thing that's intentionally silly. Not in a bad way, mind you, it was just.... odd. Either way, this was a good song, and it can join the Clump of 60 point songs.)

!Cute, fun, and an amusing look at another culture's traditional music. Neat.

[Final Thoughts: I really like the Apuse part at the end of the song, but regrettably i'm less into the rest of the song--Cublak Cublak in particular is a miss--so I'm not quite feeling this at the 60 point level tonight... it's close, but I think I'd say there's a bit of a gap between this song and the Neo Clump.]

[Later: Oh, let's move it back up to where it started and add it back to the Neo Clump. It's a fun look at another culture's traditional music & that last song is pretty great.]

[Later: I think this is charming enough that I'll move it beyond the Neo Clump.]

[Later: Inflating the score back to its Revised Value.]

[Later: And adding a few more points.]

[Later: And up a tier with this song as well!]

[Later: Let's go ahead and move this one up another tier.]

============================

EDIT: Forgot to put a remaining song number in. Fixed.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

As always, thank you all for your continued patience and understanding.

And thank you for ranking and scoring and commenting on all these songs!

Anyways, a few comments of my own...

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

!I'm pretty sure I prefer the regular version, but it was interesting to try and judge this video with its added intro, outro, & sound-effects. It's also been fun trying to guess if you were aware of the changes to the song in this video or if it's all a coincidence... like, I'm guessing you just went with the first official video you found, but I've expressed a lot of love for spoken word intros and outer-space ambiance before so this *could* be a very calculated play on your part. It's been a fun time either way.

...Well, I did know about the intro, not that I had it in mind at the time. However, I at least didn't remember the rest, as you might expect from someone who had to be told there was a clear audio quality difference between Mercy Street's official video and regular audio versions. At any rate, I know I wasn't really thinking about your preferences, and it's effectively all a coincidence in spirit. I nominated this version because, at the time, I was big on finding what I felt were the best versions of each song from their artists' official accounts, as opposed to simply nominating songs.

Speaking of which, here's an updated George Washington link, since the original seems to be down now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6OOuPI5c0

Also, I certainly didn't think I'd have such a high proportion of songs remaining at this stage, wow!

I love Apuse part the most though! Funnily enough, that is the full version of the song. There's no more of that, although of course they could always repeat it.

And yeah Cublak Cublak Suweng is basically a children's playing song so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, though there's some symbolism there.

MetalmindStats posted...

...Well, I did know about the intro, not that I had it in mind at the time. However, I at least didn't remember the rest, as you might expect from someone who had to be told there was a clear audio quality difference between Mercy Street's official video and regular audio versions. At any rate, I know I wasn't really thinking about your preferences, and it's effectively all a coincidence in spirit. I nominated this version because, at the time, I was big on finding what I felt were the best versions of each song from their artists' official accounts, as opposed to simply nominating songs.

Speaking of which, here's an updated George Washington link, since the original seems to be down now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6OOuPI5c0

I'm usually not good at noticing audio quality either, honestly. Good to know for sure it was all a coincidence; I figured it was, but since the changes and additions were all things I've praised in the past, there was no way to be sure.

And thank you for another link!

-

Raka_Putra posted...

Funnily enough, that is the full version of the song. There's no more of that, although of course they could always repeat it.

Aww. I was hoping for more, but I suppose it's also nice for a song to end where it wants to.

-

Five songs to start the morning, though the second half will likely be in the usual late afternoon slot:

-

=========================================

#130: Spiritbox - Secret Garden (3:39):
https://open.spotify.com/track/39sAePHCDbaZlpLow8lRp4?si=afee3612643c45c0

Nominator: BlackDra90n [1/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 80.00
Revised Score: 80.41
Final Score: 80.12

(First Reaction: It's a great song and an early addition to the 80 point tier. The only drawback is that it repeats itself a bit too much by the end, but considering that I thoroughly enjoy the song, that's not as much of a drawback as one might assume. Definitely a good choice.)

!I definitely dig the band's sound on this track. No specific moments or lyrics that I'm especially drawn to, but every aspect of it is good enough that I have no complaints either.

[Final Thoughts: I'm missing a personal connection or one favorite moment to really catapult this song to the highest tier, but I kinda love everything about it.]

=========================================

-

==========================================

#129: Sputrip - Breeze in the Sun (4:32):
https://youtu.be/PUWeJMDqQR8

Nominator: UF8 [4/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 69.38
Revised Score: 74.37
Final Score: 77.67 [Upgraded to 78.45] [Upgraded to 79.05] [Upgraded to 80.1155] [Upgraded to 80.14]

(First Reaction: Happy and fun jpop song. It doesn't do anything really new or original, but it's fun & all three of them are good singers with voices that go well together, so I'm happy with it.

...I am slightly troubled by how often that sentence just keeps repeating the words happy & fun, but not troubled enough to force myself to type anything else.)

!Song continues to be happy and fun, in a good way.

[Final Thoughts: The good type of bright and happy.]

[Later: Song is cute enough that I'm giving this a little boost.]

[Later, that evening: Adding another half a point or so to reach 79 points?]

[Later: And I'll move this one up a tier. I could use some more cute songs at the next tier.]

[Later: Tiny boost.]

==========================================

-continued-

============================

#128: OblivionFall - Welcome to the *** Zone (2:37):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0lN0w5HVT8

Nominator: Kateee [4/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 25.00
Revised Score: 54.00
Final Score: 70.00 [Upgraded to 73.26] [Upgraded to 74.07] [Upgraded to... something.] [Score set to 75.00000001] [Reset to something] [Upgraded to 80.17]

(First Reaction: ...The sad part is that the instrumental sampled is actually pretty decent and we've had significantly worse nominations in the past. Probably have worse nominations here, for that matter.)

Alright, alright. I do enjoy spoken narration lines, I like the dramatic narrator voice used for the quote-unquote lyrics, it's absurd enough to be *slightly* funny, and the track's got a good beat to it. This actually is a quality song, even if it's not one I'll be adding to any playlists or discussing in any further detail since I'm pretty sure I'm risking a suspension linking the song at all.

[Final Thoughts: Obviously this is a long way from my first choice of song lyrics, but you know I love the beat on this track and I'm always a sucker for spoken words, so this song is actually doing a lot of things that I unironically love.

...and...uhh...yeah, I think I actually really like this from a musical standpoint? And I've kinda become largely desensitized to vulgar lyrics, so this is a long way from the automatic last place it would have been at any previous year. So.... uhh... guess this is getting a fairly ludicrously high score. That's a thing that happened.]

[Later: I don't like admitting how much I enjoyed this, but I'll be adding a few more points.]

[Later: I am fully aware of how many songs I declared beautiful and rated lower than this song and I stand by these decisions. I'm also adding a bit of a boost to this song's score.]

[Later: ...I don't even know what I'm doing anymore.]

[Later: And I think I'll eliminate this here. It's a far more enjoyable track than expected, but I think I'm out of songs that I'd say I like less than this.]

[Later: Or not. ]

[Later: I unironically love the backing beat to this song and I do kinda love the deep film narrator style voice. So I feel like I have to give this at least 80 points, in spite of... everything.]

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================

#127: VHS Head - Midnight Section [4:11]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eVmlvr1y4s

Nominator: TunnelScene [4/27 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Revised Score: 71.7006
Final Score: 73.0097 [Upgraded to 75.11] [Upgraded to 76.10] [Upgraded to 80.46]

(First Reaction: Like a computer start-up sound that glitched in a very pleasing way, which someone then took as inspiration and expanded into a whole song. The end of the song with the deep, booming notes & often slowed-down, broken chime was particularly neat. While it doesn't sound anything like it, the idea of "broken startup chimes" naturally brings to mind the so-called "Fearful Harmony" that occurs when an original Playstation is forced to try and play an invalid disc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTQan-O3lNM

Which I always found kinda neat. It's not exactly pleasant to listen to, but it is an interesting error to hear and learn about.)

!Deep & glitchy in ways that I really like, yes.

[Final Thoughts: Broken computer music that I really like.]

[Later: It has an incredibly strong start and end, but the main part of the song doesn't quite feel as glitchy & distorted as I'd like. (Of course most of the heavily distorted songs that did get nominated this year didn't exactly get the best scores, so we probably shouldn't be listening to what I say I want). Still, I want to upgrade this song to 75 points. The broken chimes are really quite nice.]

[Later: One more point.]

[Later: And a couple more points because this type of glitchiness is something that I'm very much here for.

...actually, let's go ahead and take it up a tier. I think I kinda love what this is doing.]

[Later: The glitchy, distorted, broken nature of the song comes close to being something that I absolutely adore -but- it never feels like it's broken in the way that I want it to be. I wish that made sense.]

================

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#126: Into the Woods (Original Broadway Cast) - Finale: Children Will Listen (5:11):
https://open.spotify.com/album/728ZIip1mzws5PJrxbQo4T?si=dSt-qiAuQuiGkuVEdcXACA

Link goes to the full album because GameFAQs has suddenly decided there's a censor bypass in the link to the song itself and I don't quite have the time to get around the false positive.

Nominator: @Raka_Putra [10/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 59.00
Revised Score: 62.47
Final Score: 72.47 [Upgraded to 76.38] [Upgraded to something] [Upgraded to 80.47-ish? {considered to be the same as 80.47}]

(First Reaction: I personally wish this ended a bit sooner, before the entire company came back in. The really impactful moment was Baker sitting down to tell the story to his child. The Witch's verse felt like a powerful epilogue and.... then everyone came in to reprise songs and drag things out a bit longer than they needed to. It makes it slightly hard to score--you know how it is, "oh, I really liked this part, but not this part, and blah-blah-blah"...

[Fluttershy's Note: The writeup trails off at that point, missing its closing bracket or an actual end to that sentence.])

!I'm moving this up a tier, though I do feel it goes on a bit longer than it needed to.

[Final Thoughts: I love this song, up until the group part that closes it out. I... think I'll move this up one full tier because there's enough here that I love that it could *arguably* be at the highest tier, but with enough dragging it down that "really like" might be about as far as it goes.]

[Later: I think I'll go with four extra points. Definitely enough points in this song that I love that it needs to be at least further along this tier. ]

[Later: I don't know. There's a lot to unpack here. Just going to move this aside briefly as well.]

[Later: i guess I'll move this up a tier? I don't know. It feels like it defies scoring and categorization.]

============================

-will return later-

Wow Donna is my highest ranking song.

I did not expect that.

Much earlier than anticipated, but here's the second half--featuring a double drop from CPU:

============================

#125: Swamp Dogg - Lonely (2:38):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2C1AsnDaK873i5FZ0QL7CU?si=6d002ef0074b4452

Nominator: CPU [4/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.64
Revised Score: 57.35
Final Score: 60.00 [Upgraded to 65.03] [Upgraded to 67.98] [Placed Into Void] [Upgraded to 80.60]

(First Reaction:

I come home
And just watch television
And feel lonely

Not my favorite of the blunt sadness lyrics, but I'll take it. This song covers a lot of the same ground as the previous track (Answer Me, My Love), in lyrical content & style. I wouldn't call it redundant, but it doesn't really do enough to stand out from the previous song. I'm also a bit worried this album's going to wind up a bit one note, but I'll try to stay optimistic.)

!The final verse gets deeper and heavier, and I quite like that section of it. The rest of the song feels like it's covered better elsewhere on the album, but it does come together at the end there.

[Final Thoughts: I'm surprised you didn't post the official video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmtRZnzzZlY

Like, there was a pool table right there and I almost missed it. No one's using it, but it's still a fine table and I wouldn't pass up a chance to keep the running gag going. And is that a Batman '66 pinball table?! Aww, I wish I could play that. (There's also a Guardians of the Galaxy machine and I don't know what the middle one is)

More seriously, I'm not moving this up purely because of the running gag; the blunt loneliness is more pleasing tonight than it was the first few times. Though the video certainly isn't *hurting* the score...]

[Later: Seriously, there was a pool table and you tried holding out on me. I can't figure out why you doing that thing you do. Adding a few extra points here.]

]Later: Such a quaint little bar with a fabulous pool table & Adam West pinball. That's a damn fine setting.

Aaanywayz, I'll stop doing the bit now. This is a pretty neat little song; different type of sax than usual, catchy beat, a good amount of sadness, I do like this one a fair amount. Going to try 67 points.]

[Later: I'm getting carried away with just moving songs into a null section until I decide where to eliminate them, but here we go again.]

[Later: ...I fear the pool table joke is starting to get out of hand. I had the opportunity to watch the first episode of the Australian version of "The Traitors" (reality show inspired by Mafia--the kind they play here on Board 8, not like the real mafia or the video game series) and the castle has a really nice pool table in it. Extremely bright green felt that pops on screen, very crisp colors on the billiard balls, it's a real credit to the show's design team that they went above and beyond to pick out a table that works well on camera. That is now my internal monologue whenever a table appears on screen.

And like... I don't even especially care about pool?? This just seems to be what I am now. I... well, I mean, as far as things to have memed myself into doing, rating the quality of on-screen pool tables isn't the worst, I suppose...]

[Later: It's the part starting at 1:30 that carries the song. I keep thinking I'll cut the song, but once we hit that stretch, I decide not to. This is like the fourth or fifth time I've listened to the song since setting the value to "something" and I still don't know where it's going to wind up.]

[Later: Yeah, I think I'd say that I kinda love this song. It keeps avoiding elimination over and over, so apparently I enjoy this far more than I thought I did.]

============================

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================

#124: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Saluting The Reckoning [4:52]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDqZ6xxSOUA&list=PLbqs-W3v0JokCip1yCvbDS5Diki_yhvvC&index=11

Nominator: CJones [2/18 Remaining]

Initial Score: 43.33
Revised Score: 53.41
Final Score: 79.46 [Upgraded to 80.74]

(First Reaction: Probably the weakest song on the album.)

I'm starting to like this, but I'm definitely going to put off talking about it for as long as possible. I wouldn't say I dislike overtly politial songs, but I have to be in the right headspace to even attempt approaching a song like this and I'm flatly not there tonight.

[Final Thoughts: Seriously, this is about Trump, right? A corrupt lying leader named Mr. Orange ignoring climate change? I'm... really struggling to even see another interpretation here. Which is fine! I'd prefer a more direct "fuck Trump" if that's the route we were going, but I guess there's something to be said for at least pretending to keep some subtelty about things.

Putting that aside, there are some lyrics that appeal to me greatly. In no particular order:

What have we done?
Now we're at war with the sun

Have I praised "Snuff Out the Light" enough times this topic? Because I am a creature of the night and warring against the tyrany of the light is rather what I do. (Or wish I were doing, I'm far too... *mutters something* to actually do any warring). Now, obviously this is about climate change and inaction to said changes, but if you isolate that specific line and deny basic reality, then you can have a lot of fun with this lyric.

There's not even time to regret all that we've begun

Yes, give me the blunt sadness and misery. Regretting the lack of time to regret is some next level despair. Glorious, glorious despair!

The end is all but a curtain call away
It's ours to take

If you squint hard enough and pretend not to understand subtext at all, then this is almost a gloriously chaotic & sensual tango as the world plunges into eternal darkness.

Also, does that voice in the first verse remind anyone else of the Quiznos Spongmonkey?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG042nkReBA

And I see two ways I can take the nominated track here:

A-We have a very serious conversation about politics, climate change, and inaction

-or-

B: I dance with the devil in the pale moonlight and destroy the sun while a strange rat monkey tries to sell me overpriced toasted subs.

And I, for one, choose to believe that we live in the second reality because it's far more fun and we're all doomed no matter what I do anyway.]

[Later: If you think I won't move this up a tier because it reminds me of Spongmonkies, then you underestimate the scope of my insanity. Also the "we're at war with the sun" refrain reminds me of yet another song:

Dirt Poor Robins - We Forgot We Were Human:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjTqI7vkb6E

...Not similar songs, no, but it's what the lyrics remind me of.]

================

-continued-

========================

#123: DEMONDICE, Romonosov? - Speak of Devil (4:12):
https://open.spotify.com/track/43dQfUCIuquMaerB6TfNb1?si=53c55fefdd0f4b40

Nominator: Murphiroth [2/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 73.15 [later upgraded to 100]
Revised Score: 63.92
FInal Score: 81.09

(First Reaction: You'd think I wouldn't be into this song, with the endlessly repeating siren noise & rampant profanity, but repeatedly shouting fuck is kinda where I am mentally at the moment and taking shots at social media stars ain't exactly bad either. And while I can't find any trace of what Romonsov?'s verses are, I seem to like him more than the guests on 21st Century Haters.)

[Later: This is officially the first song that I couldn't wait to hear again and went back to before the first round of rankings were over.

Fuck a time, fuck a place, fuck a fuckin human race
Fuck a clever rhyme, just a "fuck" will do just fuckin' fine

And while I know the song is satire and you're really not supposed to take 'fuck humanity & fuck putting effort into writing' as a literal thing, ya know, it's rather what I want to hear right now. And while I probably shouldn't give it a perfect score because of that blasted siren blaring throughout the song, I'm going to jump the score up to the full 100 points anyway, because there is a pretty good chance that I go ahead and let this song win. It would be the bleakest song ranking ever on the board's history if it wins based on those lyrics, but I want to entertain the possibility and seriously consider it for a while.]

!Definitely a song I need to be in the right mood for... tonight that siren is so overpowering and I'm not quite in the mood for anger that this is a bit of a miss; not to say I regret its initial placement because there are days when it might be my favorite, but that day is not today.

[Final Thoughts: Give me a version of this song without the siren and this might win, but as is... it's really hard to give this as many points as it deserves when that incessant noise occasionally renders the song completely unlistenable. I'm going to move this back up to the 80 point tier because I do love this... sorta...]

[Later: That came off way more negative than I imagine I meant it to. It was a song in serious contention for the first place and while the choice of the siren definitely holds it back, it's still something I kinda love and rated above hundreds of other songs.]

========================

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============================

#122: Closure in Moscow - Pink Lemonade (8:14):
https://youtu.be/XOW3JAZ9MoQ

Nominator: NBIceman [4/22 Remaining]

Initial Score: 78.13
Revised Score: 79.06
Final Score: 81.11

(First Reaction:

As the song ends the fabric of space/time starts glitching around him, and it becomes apparent that he was being sung to directly as the Tacky Ornamental Slut is now enveloping him as he starts phase-shifting through the room into the space between space.

This song is a trip. intentionally so and in the best possible way. Random samples from The Sound of Music, music that varies enough that you never know where it's going, and I think I'll have to listen to the album this came from eventually. I cheated and looked at the last song to get a feel for where the album was heading. Sadly, that ending is exactly the type of thing I'd have loved to be surprised by. Curse my lack of patience. Still seems worth to listening to the album anyway.)

!It's a fun trip.

[Final Thoughts: A musical acid trip that is one of the best progressive rock songs to ever be nominated for this series. Varied and experimental in an approachable way.]

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-and the last of the day:-

============================

#121: Powerman 5000 - When Worlds Collide (2:57):
https://open.spotify.com/track/6aF5JtQSrh7wNrkDE9B0My?si=2d43584fdf164cfa

Nominator: CPU [3/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 63.46
Revised Score: 73.46
Final Score: 81.30

(First Reaction: I had an odd fascination with this song when I heard it in whichever Tony Hawk game it was. I tended to hate the louder & harsher songs from the game, but this one I'd always be a bit glad to hear. Now, it makes a bit of sense--lyrics that don't entirely make sense, references to robots & the Devil & the end of time, how utterly tame the song is compared to so many other songs I've listened to at these topics... in retrospect, this was one of the more obvious ways to ease me into harder rock music.)

!I think I'm going to move this up a full 10 points on the grounds that I've had this song stuck in my head since Pro Skater 2, which says a lot about its enduring quality & blah blah blah yackity smackity.

[Final Thoughts: I think I have enough nostalgia that I kinda love this track, actually.]

============================

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

I may try finding something from that era eventually then, for comparison's sake.

recommendation for the bonus songs list, from '79:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS_Q7RUtVL4

it's kind of a gamble to recommend this song, because it's from one of zappa's guitar solo albums, which... is probably the least popular thing among zappa fans, along with his classical music albums. a lot of people think a zappa solo without the surrounding song lacks necessary context. hopefully, you'll like it anyway, though!

Mr_Lasastryke posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS_Q7RUtVL4

Added to the list officially, thank you.

-

Four songs to start the morning:

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============================

#120: Yelle - J'ai bu (3:07):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywrk3c_WIcg&list=PLR2ATVrSGTX91hJXNoWIHovzSIqVNBM8u&index=8

Nominator: hotdogturtle [1/14 Remaining]

Initial Score: 84.77
Revised Score: 79.36
Final Score: 81.31

(First Reaction: Don't care about the lyrics, but this is an absolutely fantastic song othewise.)

!A very nice example of the "sad dance song" style.

[Final Thoughts: I kinda love this song. While there's not a lot here for me lyrically (there's some pain & regret, but there are plenty of songs that hit much harder than this song does), the music is great and I enjoy every moment of this track.]

============================

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#119: Bruce Hornsby & The Range - The Way It Is (4:33):
https://youtu.be/cOeKidp-iWo

Nominator: Mega_Mana [8/38 Remaining[

Initial Score: 81.47
Revised Score: 81.47
Final Score: 81.47

(FIrst Reaction: It's definitely an iconic and classic song. Featuring one of the most memorable piano instrumentals in the history of mainstream pop music, a strong vocal performance that is sorrowful without being overwhelmingly sad, and lyrics that argue against racism without being preachy... or really trying to challenge the audience in any way. By focusing his criticism on smartass rich people, old men, and those doing the hiring it becomes all too easy for the audience to absolve themselves of any blame or having to actually think about anything.

Not that I'm saying a super hard-hitting look into racism would score any better, I'm very much an ignorant twit and tend to avoid serious introspection like that, also the only relevant score is personal enjoyment and "brutal look into tragedy' is typically not the most enjoyable.)

!Considering that Tupac's song scores significantly better than this song, I now feel qualified to say that a harder look at things *would* do better. Not that "Changes" is a super hard hitting song either, but I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to that song's ranking.

[Portions of the following writeup have been REDACTED or cleaned up]

These are not painful lyrics. This is as tame as you can get with the subject matter.

Well, they passed a law in '64
To give those who ain't got a little more
But it only goes so far
'Cause the law don't change another's mind
When all it sees at the hiring time
Is the line on the color bar,

"Managers still hire based on skin color, sad emoji" is not exactly a brutal critique on anything. There's not really much more than a vague, generalized sadness. "Oh no, someone in the welfare line is being made fun of; oh no, some kid can't play with other kids because of race; oh no, discriminatory hiring practices"--tragedies that should be addressed? Yes, obviously!. But it's just so...subdued for want of a better word, in the name of being a mainstream hit that it lacks an emotional punch. For me, anyway.

[Final Thoughts: I went off on a massive tirade against my hometown and the people in it, but I've removed those paragraphs to try to keep things somewhat light & focus on the song itself. And while it's a great song & Bruce was at least trying to make a point, all of the examples are so downplayed & watered down that it feels... hollow. In the name of making sure the song would be accessable to the mainstream, the song doesn't really say much beyond "oh hey, some people are still racist". And it makes sure to even say that in a way that fails to challenge anyone about anything.

i'm aware I'm part of the problem. We've had far more hard hitting social commentary that did not get nearly as many points as this song did. Because while I'll say I want a song that accomplishes something, I will gleefully rank "Me Like Snow" far above just about any song that actually does. ]

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#118: The Decemberists - The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid (6:26):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv-_bAkILnE

Nominator: Ark [3/17 Remaining]

Initial Score: 59.9994
Revised Score: 59.84
Final Score: 59.89 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 61.4862] [Upgraded to 67.39 {Upgraded to 72.46 during the writeup [Upgraded to 81.32 during the writeup of the writeup]}] [Upgraded to 81.48]

(First Reaction: A compelling start to the story and it does a commendable job of making me interested in hearing the rest of the album... well, the songs after this one at any rate, I think this song explains as much of the backstory as is needed. (Album Spoilers) Of course, I'm pretty sure it can only end in tragedy with everyone dead, but it seems like a fun musical journey even if the end is a bit overly choreographed. When the final track is named "The Hazards of Love 4 - The Drowned", I think we can safely say that the band is not wasting any time hiding how things turn out for Will & his love interest.

!A good duet that sets the stage nicely and makes the listener want to hear what comes next.

[Final Thoughts: This seems like a good concept album, I should probably check some more of it out sometime.]

[Later: Perhaps I will give this song the last little boost to reach the Neo Clump. It's very memorable and does everything I could ask for in terms of setting up the story & rest of the album.]

[Later: "The Wanting Comes in Waves" part is a bit slow and plodding, but Repaid is quite compelling & I like the interplay between the two songs. I'm sure there's a name for this type of duet, in which both singers are performing different songs alongside each other, though I have no idea what it would be... either way, I think I like this enough to give it a bit of a boost above the Neo Clump.]

[Later: Several more points for this one!

Actually, *I* really like this {Wolf account here, call me Luce, or don't} so let's go up to 70 points.

...Actually I kinda love it and I'm going all the way up to 80 points.]

[Later: Minor boost to reorganize things.]

========================

-

===================

#117: Genitorturers - Touch Myself (3.22):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j06PkVMpA1U

Nominator: Xtlm [1/13 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.61
Revised Score: 90.00
Final Score: 80.899 [Upgraded to 81.485]

(First Reaction: A synthetic and grimy cover that takes a popular 80s song and gives it a hard Terminator or Blade Runner-esque edge. The lyrics of the song don't work for me at all, but this is a really fun spin on the song and I dig the aesthetics it seems to be going for.)

!Oh yeah, I'm definitely into this harsh and grimy version of the song.

...yeah, let's just go ahead and throw this up to the top tier. Nothing else on the list is giving me this cyber-industrial dystopian future edge & I think I actually love what they did to this song.

[Final Thoughts: Cyberpunk pop music, so grungy and industrial that you can taste the dystopia. Though I think I once again over-corrected things a bit... it's way beyond the 50 & 60 point tiers, but likely fits better in the 80 point tier than the 90 point one.]

[Later: Giving this song a minor boost because it's offering an experience unlike anything else on the list.]

===================

And six more brutal cuts to end the day, featuring a double drop from Snake:

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==============================

#116: Misako Uno - Sweet Hug (4:14):
https://youtu.be/wL_GRCoxuLI

Nominator: Snake [6/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 80.10
Revised Score: 90.10
Final Score: 81.38 [Upgraded to 81.49]

(First Reaction: Sometimes, the auto translation makes everything perfect:

Please come to pick me up, the
late blooming heroine is here
Hug me

I am I am a delusional ghost, my love
You are de S dog face, my love

As a delusional ghost that loves being held, this may be the only love song created for people like me. And "you are de dog face" can go in two different ways: the reasonable interpretation where the singer is being a difficult tsundere-type and insulting their loved one (which works for me) or you can pretend it's all literal and we've got a Ghost x Furry romance going (which also works).

I don't want to know what the actual lyrics are or find a better translation. This song is about a delusional ghost that wants to be held and I love it and I will not listen to any arguments about how this is clearly not an accurate version of what the lyrics are intended to be.)

!A rather on-the-nose nomination considering the literal machine translation provides exactly the type of thing I want, but I love what I love.

[Final Thoughts: I do love the auto-translated version of the first two verses and I kinda love the song itself, but I fear I may have placed far too great an emphasis on the machine lyrics... not that I'm ever objective, but I feel like the song itself fits better at the "kinda love" tier regardless of how perfectly Google translated the lines.]

[Later: Minor boost for organization.]

==============================

-

==============================

#115: KennyHoopla - hollywood sucks (2:34):
https://youtu.be/oNr7rjPzNlo

Nominator: Snake [5/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.29
Revised Score: 64.37
Final Score: 64.37 [Upgraded to 70.215] [Upgraded to 73.0000004] [Upgraded to 76.40[ [Upgraded to 78.03] [Placed Into Void] [Upgraded to 80;94] [Upgraded to 81.42] [Upgraded to 81.497]

(First Reaction: A fairly nice pop-punk song. Punk isn't a genre I have much experience with (...okay, so I don't have a lot of experience with any genre specifically), ao it's kinda nice having a simple introductory song. It's nice.)

!Hey, this is on the WWE 2K22 soundtrack, isn't it? Kinda funny that I had no connection to this song when it was nominated, but I've heard it often enough in other sources now that it's incredibly familiar... well, after hearing this so many times in the game, I've developed a bit of a fondness for this track. Not really fair to all the other songs that don't have a tendency to greet me whenever I turn a game on, but it is what it is.

[Final Thoughts: WWE 2K22 bias is real.]

[Later: I think I'm starting to really like this... which, again, is not fair to all the other songs that didn't get to feature on the soundtrack of my game of the year, but that's not really my fault.]

[Later: Moving this up to 73 points.]

[Later: One of those infectiously catchy songs that won't leave my head. Adding three more points.]

[Later: And a boost up to 78 points.]

[Later: Setting this to a null value with... basicallly everything in existence at this point.]

[Later: I kinda love this these days, though it certainly took a long time & a lot of extra listens from being in the background of WWE 2K22.]

[Later: Another little boost for reorganization purposes.]

[Later, that day: Tiny, tiny boost.]

==============================

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#114: Tangerine Dream - Love on a Real Train (4:00):
https://youtu.be/sBhB9gAM1J4

Nominator: Metalmind [11/25 Remaining]

Initial Score: 84.17
Revised Score: 100
Final Score: 81.50

(First Reaction: The type of atmospheric instrumental that I enjoy and usually kinda love at the least.)

!Ohhh yeah, this type of soothing atmosphere is EXACTLY what I need right now. There are certain other songs I was convinced was going to be at the very top of the charts after the Revised Scores, but this... this is definitely coming in first place on the second listen.

...well maybe not "definitely", but there's certainly not much room for a song to overtake it.

[Final Thoughts: And now I'm back to "kinda loving" this song. It's definitely the right tone, the right instruments, the right genre, but... I'm not connecting with this even half as strongly as the other songs at the very top of the list. Great song, I love it and would love to try more of this artist to see if they have anything else like it, but it's not quite at that highest tier right now.]

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-

====================

#113: The Beatles - A Day in the Life (5:08):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FENLOaVkXN0

Nominator: rwlh [4/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 86.31
Revised Score: 81.89
Final Score: 82.007

(First Reaction: "In My Life" is still my favorite Beatles' song, but this may actually be my second favorite.)

!One of their better songs, but "second favorite" feels like it's overstating things a tad... I suppose, objectively speaking, "Here Comes The Sun" should be in second place for being one of the few sun related songs I enjoy... but I've also listened to "Norwegian Wood" quite a bit since whenever we covered Rubber Soul at Rank The Tracks and torching everything is much more appealing to me at this exact moment.

...Aaanywho, I think I was much more into this song at some point in the past... I recall being really drawn to the reverb in his voice in that t~u~r~n y~o~u o~n part, though I'm not as captivated by it tonight for whatever reason.

[Final Thoughts: I'll always kinda love this song--and pretty much all of The Beatles' Greatest Hits. It's not really new or exciting, and I'm missing a personal attachment to make me truly fall in love with it, but it's a famous & top-tier song for many reasons.[

====================

-continued-

============================

#112: an Unkindness - Fragments (6:17):
https://open.spotify.com/track/7kamnVyy3GTke8DIylCxPQ?si=57403b16ac3b4dee

Nominator: Kateee [3/21 Remaining]

Initial Score:52.00
Revised Score: 70.00
Final Score: 81.56 [Upgraded to 82.01]

(First Reaction: The outro is powerful and definitely something I'm looking for, but the rest of the song just feels adequate. I don't really have any complaints about the rest of the song, but... yeah. Great lyrics for the ending though.)

I really like this song tonight, but I don't have much I want to say right now... I'll try to come back to this before the topic starts.

[Fluttershy's Note: As usual, she very much did not come back to this and is apparently going to put this off until the last second.]

...Well that was a bit snarkier than I was expecting. Accurate though.

[Final Thoughts:

A Genius Annotation Said...:

Reflecting back on how the singer is writing to himself, the closest to sincerity he can get to himself is to speak to himself as though hes another person; and thats about as pure as he can get to admitting his own feelings.

...Okay, reading that during a writeup in which we're already talking to ourselves is kinda trippy. @.@

Let's just say this song is relevant to my interests and toss it up another tier.]

[Later: A minor boost for organization.]

============================

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===================

#111: Donkey Kong Country Show - Me Like Snow Me Like Ice [0:50]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGS7elLOEZw

Nominator: paulg [6/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 70.08
Final Score: 82.99999999

(First Reaction: This is so, so stupid but it did actually make me laugh out loud. i'm just going to throw this into the Clump because i think anything that elicits geniune laughter needs to be at the 60 point level at least.)

!Definitely one of the funniest songs nominated & the deep tones of the instruments are actually something I like unironically... I'm kinda really liking this at the moment??

[Final Thoughts: I keep getting this song stuck in my head at random times and I think I kinda love it??]

[Later: I don't want to eliminate this song, but I am once again at a brutal part of the list... there's honestly nothing that I can move down to delay this elimination for even another day.]

===================

-

...Well, tomorrow will be fun. I don't want to eliminate anything -and- whatever I eventually give up on protecting will fall just before the top 100, making it doubly painful! So. Yay?

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#124: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Saluting The Reckoning [4:52]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDqZ6xxSOUA&list=PLbqs-W3v0JokCip1yCvbDS5Diki_yhvvC&index=11

Nominator: CJones [2/18 Remaining]

Initial Score: 43.33
Revised Score: 53.41
Final Score: 79.46 [Upgraded to 80.74]

(First Reaction: Probably the weakest song on the album.)

I actually agree with your initial assessment. This is my second least favorite song on the album, after Out Came the Hummingbirds. It's funny how much our rankings of the songs on this album are mirror opposites of each other. My favorite is your least favorite. My second least favorite is your second favorite.

It never even occurred to me that "Mr Orange" was meant to be Trump. Seems obvious now that you mention it :P Just goes to show how little attention I pay to lyrics. I really don't much care for overtly political messages in my music, even if I agree with them. And the less I have to think about Trump, the better.

I'm also very much a night person. It's cold, it's dark, and I don't have to deal with nearly as many people. I also have chronic insomnia (it's why I started drinking), and I often find it easier to sleep during the day than at night. One of my least favorite things in the world is the sound of birds singing right as the sun is about to come up. Hearing them almost always means I couldn't sleep that night, and now I have to put up with another day before it's dark again.

CJones posted...

It's funny how much our rankings of the songs on this album are mirror opposites of each other. My favorite is your least favorite. My second least favorite is your second favorite.

It never even occurred to me that "Mr Orange" was meant to be Trump. Seems obvious now that you mention it :P Just goes to show how little attention I pay to lyrics. I really don't much care for overtly political messages in my music,

Yeah, my rankings tend to be the opposite of normal people--likely a result of how... my thought process is unique in comparison to anything, we'll say. I like to believe that's what makes the ranking fun.

And I don't really mind political songs myself, per se. I don't typically like discussing them because they tend to be at the intersection of "I don't have the qualifications to really speak of this" and "I can't go on any wild tirades when we're dealing with things this serious", but I do like challenging myself with subjects that I wouldn't normally listen to. At the very least, I'd like to be someone who can listen to important messages instead of always defaulting to my safe space of cartoon soundtracks and novelty albums.

(As much as an all cartoon & novelty ranking would be in my wheelhouse, I doubt it'd be as fun... though I do sometimes wonder how I'd rank the Pac-Man Fever album [original release, not the butchered CD version you can find on Spotify] against something like the unauthorized Disney cover album The Chipmunks put out; Fever might win an "average score" contest because it's more consistent? But then it did have a few clunkers of its own, like the song about Mouse Trap. "Press the doggy button," really?

[EDIT: The song about Mouse Trap was just called "Mousetrap"? Eesh. No wonder it's probably the worst track on the album, they couldn't even be bothered to come up with an actual name for the track. Hyperspace is the second worst from the album & is also just named after the game directly. Coincidence???]

....Aaaanywho....)

...Also considering the bit about Spongmonkies, I suppose I can go off on tangents during political songs, occasionally. That particular song didn't seem to take itself very seriously at all, so I didn't quite go into "serious mode" in response. I'm not entirely sure if that counts as a point for or against the track.

-

I very much love the night. I'm afraid I don't have any deeply personal reasons to share, I just seem to prefer things dark and quiet.

-

Two songs to start the morning as we count down towards the top 100:

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#110: Come From Away (Original Broadway Cast) - 38 Planes (Reprise) / Somewhere In The Middle Of Nowhere (4:22):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0yE2JdVc5CnZc6wuBCIMtj?si=96e72d5306bb4ff3

Nominator: @Raka_Putra [9/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 62.12
Revised Score: 62.12
Final Score: 60.48 [Upgraded to 62.121] [Upgraded to 67.21] [Upgraded to 70.41] [Upgraded to 72.36] [Upgraded to 77.3098] [Placed Into Void] [Upgraded to 80.003] [Upgraded to 80.55] [Upgraded to 82.16009] [Upgraded to 83.00]

(First Reaction: Were it not based on true events, I'd accuse this of being too unrealistically happy and hopeful. There are probably several important lessons here about how my pessimism does not accurately reflect reality -or- no matter how pessimistic I may be, at least better places than where I live exist *somewhere* on this planet, but I'll deal with those lessons later (spoilers: I will not do that.).

I like Jenn Colella's voice and performance here, I think she really makes the song and I'd be interested in hearing more from her... sadly, it seems like this was her biggest role, so there probably aren't too many songs featuring her. Sad, I think she deserves a more high-profile career than she appears to have. Judging on this song at least.)

!Good, happy song.

[Final Thoughts: Happy, feel good music if you want to feel better about humanity.]

[Later: Going to just move this one back up where it came from, not sure why it fell down to begin with.]

[Later: And a few extra points.]

[Later: And some more to reach the next tier.]

[Later: And two more points!]

[Later: Another five points, sure. This is one of those songs that gets a rather substantial boost each time I listen to it.]

[Later: Moving this aside for a while. I don't know where I'm eliminating this, other than "not right now".]

[Somewhere in the Middle of a Void: I'll go ahead and move this one up a tier. It's a sweet, feel good song which... not quite my current preferred adjectives, but it's nice to have some less cynical songs up here.]

[Later: And once again I had this song ready to be eliminated, but I'm going to move it up a bit more at the last moment.]

[Later: Moving this up to 82 points with a very specific number that doesn't mean anything, but is what I feel like giving for a score.]

===========================

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#109: Linkin Park - In the End (3:36):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLZWkjBXfN8&list=PLSZnrWBCBT3ng1xEWEkXC91StoZjD8BP3&index=8

Nominator: Mega_Mana [7/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 77.74
Revised Score: 84.62
Final Score: 82.509 [Upgraded to 83.08]

(First Reaction: A great song, but one that might be a bit overplayed--it's such a big hit that I feel like I've heard it often enough to have it memorized just from hearing it in the background so often. It's still great and I really like it, but it's lacking a bit of punch because it's just too familiar to hit really hard.)

Delicious, delicious pain that's too familiar to properly crush me any longer. I still love it though.

[Final Thoughts: I do kinda love this song. It's full of suffering and failure, with a dash of hopelessness and futility in a delicious cake of misery! But, I have kinda heard it enough times that it has lost most of its edge... not to say there aren't some very familiar songs at the absolute top tier, but I'm just not as attached to this one at the moment.]

============================

And six more. Featuring a double drop from Mega Mana & the third elimination:

====================

#108: HK Educational TV - Maths opening song (1:27):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0ikl77vZTk

Nominator: Handsomeboy [5/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.299
Revised Score: 98.03
Final Score: 83.10

(First Reaction: *this space intentionally left blank*)

!Ever been emotionally crippled by memories of a life that never was? This song is painful, in rather unexpected ways... The singer has a very sweet, motherly voice which is rather sweet and it's so pure & innocent that I love this track.

[Final Thoughts: Another of the songs that doesn't quite hit as hard as it once did... this type of very sweet, innocent, childhood thing can emotionally cripple me... at times. And while I do kinda love how sweet and pure this is, it's missing that spark that pushes it into the top 10 like it was before. Still a fantastic choice that I kinda love, but not quite the overwhelming force it was.]

====================

-

============================

#107: Grimes - Life in the Vivid Dream (1:27):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5R8T6F32PjJflb58Y564G0?si=8ea2483db9a64a62

Nominator: Player_0 [3/33 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 60.002
Final Score: 83.15

(First Reaction: A very short song, but it's rather pretty & the environmental message is nice. I like it and I'm adding it to the Clump.)

!Short, but pretty and bleak. I wish there were a bit more to this track, but there's nothing wrong with a song that does what it needs to and quickly moves along.

[Final Thoughts: I am really, really, really into this song tonight and considered jumping it directly to the highest tier available... but it ends so quickly that I'm disappointed and not sure I want to commit to that massive of a jump. Still, I do kinda love it, so I'm jumping it up two and a half tiers.]

============================

-

============================

#106: Tony Harnell - It Doesn't Matter (4:27):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJs1iJOXFN8

Nominator: DoctorJimmy [2/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 77.80
Revised Score: 92.44
Final Score: 83.277

(First Reaction: I typically love the lyrical Sonic songs and this song is no exception. I'll also say that I prefer this version of the song over the SA2 version, which loses what little edge the original had in favor of being overly happy. I don't quite think this is at the highest tier of Sonic songs though--I'd take pretty much the entirety of the Sonic R soundtrack, Seven Rings, and E.G.G.M.A.N. over it pretty easily.

...Aaanywho, I'm not really sure the song fits Sonic all that well--dude is pretty much always showing off and criticizing--but it's a good song and I try not to hold that against it too much.)

!In retrospect, even a third tier Dreamcast-era lyrical Sonic song is pretty easily in the 90 point tier.

[Final Thoughts: I think I'll split the difference and move this towards the 80 point tier. I do love it, but it's not even in the top 10 lyrical Sonic songs (maybe not even top 20)...

...how many would I definitely take over this? In no particular order:

Alll Sonic R lyrical songs (7 tracks)
My Sweet Passion
Live and Learn
Open Your Heart
Unknown From M.E. (Ver. 1)
Seven Rings in Hand
E.G.G.M.A.N.
Throw It All Away
I Am... All of Me
All Hail Shadow (2006 version)
Dreams of an Absolution (the original & a later remix)
Sonic Boom (intro version & credits version)
What I'm Made Of
This Machine

...yeah, this isn't Top 20. There may be other songs, but I think I've named enough tracks. If there are that many lyrical Sonic songs that I'd take over it, I don't think I can say that this is top tier... still something that I kinda love and not exactly far from being on that level, but there's just too many songs that are a solid tier above it.]

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#105: Swamp Dogg - Answer Me, My Love (2:53):
https://open.spotify.com/track/4u4A8JZPUuvHXwf1zNgbWT?si=d70259cfa58243da

Nominator: CPU [2/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 61.11
Revised Score: 69.82
Final Score: 74.3006 [Placed Into Void] [Upgraded to 82.73] [Upgraded to 83.29]

(First Reaction: To be honest, I had no idea how to react to this at first. A heavily autotuned version of a classic song with such a long history ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answer_Me_(1953_song) [remember to add the closing bracket yourself or the direct link won't work[)? It doesn't help that I wasn't feeling well at the time and really had to take a break, so I didn't have the time to work through my thoughts. So, this wound up being the first song where i had to scrap everything and come back to it on another day.

I think I would have preferred a version using the original English version of the lyrics, where the singer is speaking to God. I feel the heavily altered, almost demonic sounding vocals in places would go quite nicely with speaking to a higher power. A man, alone, at the end of his rope, pleading to supernatural forces beyond his understanding as his pleas become more distorted and twisted... such a wonderfully dark twist to the song it could have been,

[Also, the lines "Please listen to my prayer" & "In my sorrow now I turn to you" just don't work as well when sung directly to the ex-lover. Your lover breaks up with you, so you turn to someone for answers... that person being the ex-lover who just broke up with you? Feels like an odd way of phrasing things. She left you. She turned away from you, you didn't turn away from her, so how are you turning to her? "Yes, yes, now that you've broken up with me, now--and only now--shall I turn to you, my love!", yeah, I'm kinda getting the feeling she could do better than you.

Also the crux of the song is the singer not knowing why his lover left, which again, had you turned to them at some point before the relationship ended, you'd probably know where things went wrong. ]

Singing directly to the lover gives a different feeling to the song. I feel the more direct, heartfelt plea doesn't go quite as well with the severe distortion unless the singer has gone completely insane and is about to rip off her face or something. Which I doubt was the intended reading of the song. But, regardless of my critique over the lyric changes, I do like this.)

!I enjoy this song more now. I suppose getting all my irrelevant complaining out of the way let me better enjoy what the song was actually doing.

[Final Thoughts: Another song that I'm starting to really like, though I still feel it would have been improved with the original lyrics.]

[Later: Moving this song aside for a day or two.]

[Later: I think I'll be taking this song up a tier. Early 80s feels like a better fit than the late 70s, as this song does have this broken feel to it that I'm rather drawn to.]

============================

-continued-

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#104: New Medicine - Fuck It (2:20):
https://youtu.be/LFpe-4GcxoM

Nominator: Snake [4/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 75.00
Revised Score: 58.33
Final Score: 63.66 [Upgraded to 63.89] [Upgraded to 66.10] [Upgraded to 71.005] [Upgraded to 71.24] [Upgraded to 73.24] [Upgraded to 74.13] [Upgraded to 75.00000004] [Upgraded to 80.318] [Upgraded to 81.085] [Upgraded to 83.33]

(First Reaction: i prefer wallowing in self-pity and misery, but I should make more room for songs like this on my playlists, yes.)

!Good message, but I feel the lyrics repeat themselves too often and I prefer either anger or despair than this type of inspiration... I like it, but it's not quite what I want right now. Still, it very much was something I wanted a few months ago, so there's room for the score to potentially go back up later.

[Final Thoughts: The song continues bouncing around, this time jumping back up a tier. Still not nearly where it was on a first listen, but a pretty drastic increase over the second time. I'm still more into songs that are more.... mopey and miserable than inspirational, but this ain't a bad shot and I do like it.]

[Later: Very minor boost to this score.]

[Later: Let's move this a bit further back...]

[Later: Sure, let's go ahead and move this back up a tier.]

[Later: Bit of a boost to reogranize this part of the list.]

[Later: Two more points; I did have this set to be eliminated, but as usual,, I'm switching things around at the last minute.]

[Later: Another point.]

[Later: Yeah sure, I'll move this back up to its Initial Score.]

[Later: I think I kinda love this at the moment.]

[Later: Adding a bit less than a whole point to reach the 81 point level. This feels significant, even if it really isn't.]

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============================

#103: Jay Tholen - Colder Than the Rest (7:25):
https://youtu.be/I5Pht28LqQ8

Nominator: hotdogturtle [0 Remaining]

Initial Score: 49.91
Revised Score: 56.66 (upgraded to 62.07) (upgraded again to 72.19)
Final Score: 84.00

(First Reaction:

Me: I don't like choruses that repeat themselves.

Song: What if I repeat the chorus 39 times?

Me: ...You're lucky I'm biased in favor of fictional artists and like the synth voice of the verses. -.-')

The computerized voice is a lot of fun and I dig the idea of the song, but those choruses...

(Chorus One)

Gotta drink it
Gotta drink it up

*repeat 12 times*

(Chorus Two)

Gotta drink it
Gotta drink it up

*repeat 12 times*

(Chorus Three)

Gotta drink it
Gotta drink it up

*repeat another 15 times*

'

This is a song that is equal parts fantastic & fantastically irritating. But as crazy as it sounds, I think I'm pretty into the song tonight. The third chorus has the music go pretty wild, in a way that I find very appealing--it;s like I need songs to be weird in unique ways for me to glomp onto them these days and while there's certainly some unusual music in this topic, I don't think anything nominated is doing anything quite like what this song is doing at the final chorus and i think I may actually love whatever's happening here in spite of the repetition. And the more I look at it, the more points I want to give the song--I started with a mid-50s score, which felt very appropriate--song does some things I like, has a notable drawback, less than 60 points, yadda yadd a yadda... but everything from the final chorus to the oddly ominous "from our family to yours" corporate message outro is solid gold & I'm tempted to vault this song all the way up to the 90 point tier.

...But I think I'll compromise and stop at the early 70s. The "I quite liked this" tier. It's a massive jump from where the song started and I can reevaluate how I feel about it on another day.

[Final Thoughts: I've been looking forward to hearing this one again for a long time. Not strongly enough to listen to it earlier than I was supposed to, but I'm really pumped up to hear this one again. And I do kinda love this song... it is longer than it probably should have been, but what's here is fantastic enough that I'm not going to complain much. Also I guess songs about drinks don't get the typical "food song, argh" response, so that's kinda interesting?]

============================

ELIMINATION #3: hotdogturtle

Lowest Scoring Song:

Yelle - S'eteint le soleil [46.13]

Highest Scoring Song

Jay Tholen - Colder Than the Rest [84.00]

Average Score: 64.25

Your average score is held back a fair amount by the lower scoring tracks from the "Safari Disco Club" album. You only had three songs that weren't from that album, but all three of them were hits, with an average score of 73.70 between them; that being said, I did enjoy "Safari Disco Club". I consider any album that gets at least two 60 point songs to have been something worth listening to & Yelle absolutely smashed that criteria, with four 60 pointers & two 80 point tracks. Safari Disco Club is way better than the average album I listen to--also I've wanted a French pop album for a while, so thank you for fulfilling that request.

Beyond that, "Superfly Slick Dick" wound up being an unexpected treat. While I was initially put off by its genre and style, it wound up jumping up multiple tiers with each listen and became something that I really enjoyed! And as mentioned, "Colder Than the Rest" wound up being a highly unique song that offered an experience unlike anything else. So thank you very much for participating! You gave me an album that was both something I wanted & really liked, and a few wildcard picks that were all relatively high up the charts.

-------------------------------

Average Score Chart

hotdogturtle: 64.25
Kopazzynth 58.99
Shonen_Bat: 55.13

--------------------------------------------------

-continued for one more post-

And the last two:

==================

#102: 2Chainz & Wiz Khalifa - We Own It (3:47):
https://youtu.be/tYQ1Okyi3g4

Nominator: Mega_Mana [6/38 Remaining[

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 66.48
Final Score: 63.98 [Upgraded to 65.01] [Upgraded to 69.15] [Upgraded to 72.29] [Upgraded to 78.44] [Upgraded to 80.14] [Upgraded to 83.69] [Upgraded to 84.026]

(First Reaction: Is it just me or does the song experience a massive jump in quality at the final verse? I'm not sure why, particularly as it's not Wiz Khalifa's only verse on the track and his first one did nothing for me, but something about his voice and the music at that part is near perfection. I had this pegged as a high-50s point song until that verse hit, now I feel like it should be at least up to the next tier... going to also add this one to the Clump of 60 point songs and see if the verse holds up on later listens.)

!The rest of the song is neat, but I really like that last verse and I'm moving this song up a bit as a result.

[Final Thoughts: A good song all around, but that verse is killer for reasons I never did figure out.]

[Later: A little more than one point added to raise this up a bit.]

[Later: And a few more points.]

[Later: And a few more points! Yay points!]

[Later: Oh, this is convenient. I've been wondering which song had that "I am whatever I am" lyric all day. Six extra points.]

[Later: Yeah, let's take this one up a tier as well.]

[Later: Let's go with another three points here. the last verse is fantastic and the chorus has quite a bit that appeals to me.]

==================

-

==================

#101: Jethro Tull - Cheap Day Return (1:21):
https://youtu.be/hEDH5lbWlms

Nominator: Mega_Mana [5/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 57.00
Revised Score: 56.71
FInal Score: 59.77 [Upgraded to 62.63] [Upgraded to 67.85] [Upgraded to 73.18] [Upgraded to 80.19] [Upgraded to 81.19] [Upgraded to 84.07]

(First Reaction: It's fine, though it's so short and the lyrics so literal that I find it impossible to talk about in any context.)

!Not the most compelling story and a bit too short to really get drawn into voice. What's here is good enough that I like it, but it's so brief & lacking in emotional content that I probably won't go back to it too often.

[Final Thoughts: I do like it; it's got a perfect style to it and everything here is done well, I just wish there was a lot more of it.

...and yes, I'm still aware how hypocritical it is for me of all people to complain a song ended too soon.]

[Later: Alright, I do like this song. It's still so very short though...]

[Later: I really enjoy this, I'm just having a bit of a hard time getting over my disappointment about how quickly it ends... still, deinitely like what is here enough to keep raising the score, so that's something.]

[Later: I suppose I do really like this, in spite of how brief it is.]

[Later: Actually, I think I kinda love it? I shouldn't because it's so short as to be unsatisfying at the conclusion, but.... eh, I still do want to move it up to 80 points anyway.]

[Later: Going to try adding one more point to this. I do kinda love it and the story, simple as it is, is more well told than I gave it credit for.]

==================

-

----------------------

REMAINING SONG COUNT

Bane: 5/38 Remaining
BlackDra90n: 1/30 Remaining
cakophon: 1/20 Remaining
CJones: 2/18 Remaining
CPU: 2/30 Remaining
DoctorJimmy: 2/24 Remaining
Dragon66116: 1/12 Remaining
handsomeboy: 5/31 Remaining
Haste: 2/31 Remaining
Jesse_Custer: 7/29 Remaining
kateee: 3/21 Remaining
Lasa: 1/14 Remaining
Mega Mana: 5/38 Remaining
Metalmind: 11/25 Remaining
Murphiroth: 2/32 Remaining
NBIceman: 4/22 Remaining
NFUN: 2/31 Remaining
paulg: 6/52 Remaining
Player_0: 3/33 Remaining
Raka: 9/31 Remaining
rwlh: 4/24 Remaining
sergio: 2/13 Remaining
Snake: 4/32 Remaining
TheArkOfTurus: 3/17 Remaining
TunnelScene: 4/27 Remaining
UF8: 4/30 Remaining
Xtlm: 1/13 Remaining
ZaziGuado: 4/28 Remaining

----------------------

And tomorrow we go onward into the top 100.

Ive got more in the top 100 than I expected to have. I cant actually remember whats left of my nominations.

Hey, we have the same favourite Art Angels song! My #2 is Kill V. Maim though, it's too damn catchy

Jesse_Custer posted...

Ive got more in the top 100 than I expected to have. I cant actually remember whats left of my nominations.

Spoiler-tagged in case you want to be surprised by what's left (ordered by artist):

Father John Misty - Mr. Tillman
Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting on You)
LEN - Steal My Sunshine
Stereophonics - Dakota
The Charlatans - And If I Fall
U2 - Gone
Villagers - A Trick of the Light

These are my remaining songs:

2Pac - Changes
Aimee Mann - Wise Up
The Mountain Goats - No Children
The Supremes - Baby Love

I suspect No Children will be your favorite of the four, given your taste in lyrics, but I could them dropping in basically any order.

...I feel like my last two songs couldn't be more tonally different, and I'm not wholly sure which one will be #1 of the two. I suspect 'I'll Pretend', with it getting this far but don't wish to assume.

Aww I like Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere precisely because it's so full of relief and optimism. Though I do appreciate sadder songs once in a while. Speaking of which, it's pretty funny that the next song is In the End!

Also yay Top 100. I have 9 left and I forgot what precisely I nominated, so it'll be fun finding it out together with everyone else.

Officially adding "The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love" to the post topic list, as I do feel like finishing that story eventually. Anyway, fhree songs to start the day:

-

====================

#100: LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends (7:37):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDRLW748j68

Nominator: ZaziGuado [3/28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 92.66
Revised Score: 85.50
Final Score: 84.12

(First Reaction: Most likely the best song on the "Sound of Silver" album, with Someone Great as the only real competition. At least, I had this as the best song when we ranked the album back in late May... Someone Great has those lower bum-bum--bumn notes that are neat, though they repeat a bit too often... that song starts off with "oh wow, I love this sequence of notes" and quickly devolves into "wow, you're really just going to play those exact same notes, huh?" and it doesn't qutite hold my attention for its full runtime, which makes it fairly easy to give the top placement to "All My Friends" even if Someone Great is doing some things I love more than Friends.

(Take the shortened runtime from the Official Video and remix Someone Great's audio to increase the volume of the instruments [especially my precious low-tones] and it would be a harder decision as to which of the two songs I preferred But at that point, we're just discussing hypothetical remixes of the song and that's rather silly. Of course any song could hypothetically be better, but we can only evaluate that which exists in this plane of reality. And that's not even the song we're meant to be discussing.)

I suppose I'll try to force myself back to the point. All My Friends has a killer instrumental track that somehow manages to avoid feeling repetitive, even though it rather is if you stop to actually think about it. And it's easily the singer's best performance from the album, managing to form more of an emotional connection than I had expected.)

!It's a neat song, one I still find myself surprisingly drawn to, though I haven't figured out exactly why. Right now, I'm thinking this might be around the mid 80s; I l like it quite a bit and kinda love it, but I think there's a bit of a gap between this and the top tier.

[Final Thoughts: I definitely kinda love this track. The backing music is incredibly pleasing and it's far more emotionally resonate than anything else from the album.]

====================

-

==========================================

#99: Shirahana Saku - The Observatory Girl (6:04):
https://youtu.be/PMpI-vr6GwA

Nominator: UF8 [3/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 81.00
Revised Score: 81.00
Final Score: 80.00000001 [Upgraded to 81.00] [Upgraded to 84.13]

(First Reaction: Beautiful instrumentation and lyrics, along with a dreamy "sinking into the abyss" outro. Let's just leave the writeup on that high note for now.)

!Pretty song. I like it quite a bit. It should fit right in at the "kinda love" level, actually.

[Final Thoughts: Let's go to the end of this world.]

[Later: Not sure why this was moved down, so take a point to get back to where you started.]

==========================================

-

============================

#98: Lyn - Invitation to Freedom (3:20):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-PBHg3JLcA

Nominator: DoctorJimmy [1/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 54.50
Revised Score: 54.50
Final Score: 58.16 [Upgraded to 61.49] [Upgraded to 63.438] [Upgraded to 67.3999] [Upgraded to 70.3999] [Upgraded to 74.28] [Upgraded to 76.00] [Upgraded to 78.93] [Placed Into Void] [Upgraded to 82.475] [Upgraded to 84.228]

(First Reaction: It's no "Last Surprise" , but it's an appropriate battle theme for the Persona 5 cast.)

There really aren't that many battle themes I'm into and while this type of lyrical song is a much better choice than the average battle song, I don't think it's top tier Persona music. Even limiting hings to Q2, I greatly prefer "Pull the Trigger"--I honestly enjoy every part of that track, while Freedom just reminds me I'd rather be listening to "Last Surprise" or "Take Over" (which I didn't like originally, but am starting to come around on...somewhat).

[Final Thoughts: Much better than I remembered, though still half a step below the next tier.]

[Later: I'm apparently in the mood for this this morning and suddenly like this.]

[Later: A couple extra points.]

[Later: I've had this stuck in my head all week and was strangely hyped up knowing that it was going to come up again soon... going to move this song up to 67 points.]

[Invitation to Next Tier: Sure, I'll move this up to the early 70s. I didn't really care about this at first, but I've been oddly happy to see the song each time it reappears.]

[Still Going: Four more points.]

[Later: Going to try adding two more points, see how it looks around that level.]

[Later: Let's add a few more points while we're at it.]

[Later: Moving this aside. I... don't know if I'm moving this up a tier or not right now.]

[The Next Day: Yeah, I'll go ahead and move this one up a tier.]

========================

-

============================

#97: Moana - Where You Are (3:30):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5eADwUCxvyIQyDOBMsokMF?si=0d86c10a65b14d39

Nominator: @Raka_Putra [8/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 85.15*
Revised Score: 85.16
Final Score: 85.17

(First Reaction: I had forgotten how emotional and powerful the grandmother's verse in this song was. Definitely an underrated song from the soundtrack.)

*Initial score was listed as 85.15 on one page and 85.14 on another... this fraction of a point had no impact on the song's standings and there's no way of telling which one was a typo, so I'm counting it as the higher value.

!The song is carried by the grandmother's verse, but I'd also like to take a moment and laugh at the villagers who seems to have no idea what a coconut is. "Consider the coconut." "The WHAT?!" and I honestly can't tell if they're pretending to be confused for the sake of Moana's lecture or if there are a few people on the island that are like "dude, what the FUCK is a coconut?!?!.

...Alright, I know it's not that second thing, but the thought still makes me laugh.

[Final Thoughts: Oof. Grandmother's verse always hits me really, really hard. I do kinda love this song... sadly, I'm not nearly as into the rest of the song (though I will always laugh at the coconut bit), but this song is still fairly close to the next tier.]

============================

Oh my god

My highest placing nom is my joke nom

I never thought this would happen to me

DoctorJimmy133 posted...

My highest placing nom is my joke nom

I never thought this would happen to me

You expected the furry villain singing about pain to get a low score? I rather thought that song was you trying to push as many "free points" buttons at once as was possible, to be honest.

-

Six songs to end the day, featuring the last of the three controversial decisions where I somewhat cheated with what was actually nominated. (Kinda).

-

============================

#96: KEN BLAST -The Top (Extended) (4:40):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2YByIMqNtTb0T072UDfTo9?si=5d494c413274448a

Nominator: CPU [1/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.11
Revised Score: 65.58
Final Score: 65.59 [Upgraded to 66.38] [Upgraded to 68.106] [Upgraded to 70.1112] [Upgraded to 70.92] [Upgraded to 71.18] [Upgraded to 71.47] [Upgraded to 74.87] [Upgraded to 78.47] [Placed Into Void] [Upgraded to 80.1154] [Upgraded to 83.81] [Upgraded to 85.19]

(First Reaction: Villainous* eurobeat anime race song? Cool.The song repeats itself too many times, but the lyrics are fun and over-the-top (pun not intended)--:"Are you ready now to die?" is so ridiculously theatrical that I am rather obligated to highly enjoy this.

*Yeah, yeah, it's probably not meant to be evil. It's all metaphorically killing someone and really about the music industry or blah-blah-blah. I choose to interpret this as literal and dark, and I'm happier for it.)

!Neat and incredibly memorable, but a tad repetitive & the pulsing dance beat is something I'm not always in the mood for.... still, I do like it & it's around the upper-mid part of the "I like this" tier.

[Final Thoughts: A bit too Eurodance to be an absolute favorite, but I like it a fair amount. Great lyrics and energy.]

[Later: And a bit of a boost to this song as well.]

[Later: Up to the 68 point level with this one.]

[Later: Bit of a boost to reach the next tier.]

[Later: Not quite going up to 71 points, but putting it right on the edge there.]

[Later: A minor boost; enough to get up to 71 points and possibly delay this elimination by one or two places, but not enough to put it off for an entire day.]

[Later, that afternoon: Ehh... maybe I do want to spare this for another day.]

[Later: Three more points! Will anything be eliminated? Who knows!]

[Whee, points-points-points-points-points. I wasn't intentionally trying to just flip two digits around to change the score, but it looks neat.]

[Later: All falls into the Void.]

[Later: Sure, I'd say I kinda love this. A bit too thumping, but it's got a good beat & a fun energy & neat lyrics & a spoken word section.]

[Later: Let's go with a bit less than four extra points; going to move this song way up the list.]

[Later: I've grown rather attached to this song over the past year. While it's not evil, there is a level of cartoon-ish arrogance & theatrical flair to some of the lyrics that the track winds up ticking a lot of those boxes for me. And the music is enjoyable, once I've properly adjusted to what the genre is & what it's doing.]

============================

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============================

#95: Kinky Boots - Price and Son Theme / The Most Beautiful Thing in the World (6:20):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2cY15EZqnN9bxPb5UuYuBE?si=83bb09e9fa224d18

Nominator: @Raka_Putra [7/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 59.94
Revised Score: 64.19
Final Score: 85.306

(First Reaction: The song serves as a good introduction to Charlie and Simon/Lola, but I find myself kinda wishing you went with the more overtly theatrical "Land of Lola" or emotional "Not My Father's Son"... then again, this opening song did convince me to look up other songs and you can't ask more of an opening song than "convinced someone to continue listening", so it's a smashing success in that regard.)

!Pretty hard to say this song is below the "I like this" tier when I liked it enough to continue listening to some other songs and my only complaint appeared to be 'needs more Lola'. So yeah, I like this and I'm moving it more towards the mid-60s.

[Final Thoughts: As brief as Lola's origin story is, it's definitely the part that is carrying this song up several tiers. The chorus is catchy and memorable, sure, but Lola brings the powerful emotional hook that elevates the track above those that are merely catchy.]

============================

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========================

#94: Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman - Time to Say Goodbye (4:06):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3mdHmhI3cs

Nominator: Handsomeboy [4/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 71.15
Revised Score: 86.12
Final Score: 85.31

(First Reaction: A powerful, operatic duet. It's about time someone nominated something like this.)

!Exactly the type of song I've been waiting for someone to nominate.

[Final Thoughts: As someone raised on Placido Domingo's few English albums, this specific style of music has a lot of nostalgia associated with it and they're both very fine performers. I'm not especially attached to the lyrics or anything here, but it is a great song that I kinda love even if I'm lacking any specific attachment to it.]

========================

-continued-

===================

#93: Knife City - King Noah (4:57):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixigezB1er4

Nominator: sergio [1/13 Remaining]

Initial Score: 51.04
Revised Score: 53.006
Final Score: 52.111 [Upgraded to 55.28] [Upgraded to 57.39] [Upgraded to 72.27] [Upgraded to 82.19] [Upgraded to 85.36]

(First Reaction: I absolutely adore the intro with its quiet, low buzzing, but once the song kicks in then things feel a bit too dubstep "WUB WUB WUB"-y for me. )

This song just goes in a direction that's radically different from what I was hoping for from that intro. I wanted static and instead got... well, music, really. It's making it difficult to judge fairly because I know I shouldn't be complaining about what a song isn't, but I really wanted more music that focuses on things like the intro to this song.

Getting past that... I'm afraid this is in the class of instrumentals that don't really make me think of anything specific. I'm not getting an "experience" from this, it's just... nice, I suppose? I'd never complain about hearing it, but wouldn't seek it out in the future or remember much of it.

[Final Thoughts: That opening with the buzzing is so close to perfection that it's still kinda sad that the song doesn't really focus on those sorts of feelings. There's still some hints of it as the song goes on and some rather nice, deep, "bwwooom"-ing around... I think about 1:50 and 3:30? But the track never places much emphasis on the parts I like and I find myself struggling to really connect with it. It's nice and definitely doing some things I love, but doesn't quite hit the right notes with me.]

[Later: That intro is *so good* though... I had it stuck in my head all night and knew I had to move this song further up the list in the morning. The rest of the song doesn''t work for me even half as well, but I'd say I kinda like this enough to reach the 55+ point level.]

[Later: A few extra points to move this up a bit.]

[Some Time Later: That intro is way too good; don't care how short it is, I'm moving this up two tiers right now.]

[Much Later: How long has it been since the 57 part of the list? It feels like I haven't heard this song in forever... *checks* yeah, looks like around December 14th or 15th would have been when I last heard this. Man, this really was a long ranking wasn't it? Aaanywho, I've been really looking forward to hearing this again for a couple weeks now... I knew it had to be coming up eventually and have been oddly disappointed that I had to wait so long for it to come up again. So I'm moving this up another tier because if that's not at least an 80 point reaction, then nothing is.]

[Later: Errgh... I hate cutting this... intro is so perfect... but, as I've said, all the cuts are rough at this stage and I can't quite convince myself to cut anything else instead, I'm afraid.]

===================

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==============================

#92: Ice Nine Kills -The Shower Scene (3:11)::
https://youtu.be/TGUdEZT7sGs

Nominator: Snake [3/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.04
Revised Score: 87.35
Final Score: 85.66

(First Reaction: Hey, I vaguely know of these guys! I randomly bumped into one of their songs when I was playing Audiosurf 2. You can play YouTube videos as music for the game (though you have to use a mod to do so these days) and you can also see what songs other people are playing lately. Someone played the song "Hip To Be Scared ft. Jacoby Shaddix" which was an interesting enough title that I had to play the song/stage myself. Don't remember the song at all, but I apparently didn't hate it, as I did play the song twice in a row to get a better score on it.

Back on topic, this song is a great pick. The band is fantastic, I've mentioned my fondness for fictional villain songs many times, and we even have some spoken word samples at the end. This is one of the most "me" nominations thus far. If I had to have some negatives: i'm not really into the use of the iconic Psycho stabbing music--I know they're basically obligated to include it, but it's an intentionally unpleasant sound which kinda hurts the score a bit.)

!This lighter side of metalcore is definitely what I'm into these nights,

...also I am now disappointed that when I re-nominated the Silver Scream at Rank the Tracks, I did not quote the bridge from "Hip To Be Scared" as my writeup. "The whole album has a refined melodic sensibility that really makes it a cut above the rest" would have been a perfect nod to the follow-up album & obscure enough that no one other than you could have called me on it. *coughs*

Either way, I really do like this song--it's not quite up there on the level of something like "Hip" , largely due to the stabbing music being a bit too... stabby, but it's still a delight and definitely something I find highly appealing.

[Final Thoughts: Ironically, it is the shower scene part of "The Shower Scene" that keeps this from reaching the highest tier. I love the clear & melodic vocals here, I love the villainy, I love the faint screaming--loud enough to enjoy the screaming, but soft enough that it doesn't hurt your ears or overpower the music, love the genre... but those sharp stabbing notes are... stabbing. Which they're meant to be, I AM AWARE OF THE SYMBOLIC NATURE OF STABBING NOTES DURING A STABBING SCENE, that doesn't mean I have to enjoy hearing them.]

==============================

-last song has to be in a post by itself because it won't fit here-

============================

#91: U2 - Gone (4:26):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5Ix7eNDeGdS2y2n3OSTCr5?si=6ZBbWqhESLu1INOtBWPdNQ

Initial Score: 57.41
Revised Score: 57.41
Final Score: 57.41 [Upgraded to 85.72]

-or-

##91: U2 - Gone [Mike Hodges Mix]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9htJSs9GBQ

Nominator: Jesse Custer [6/29 Remaining]

Initial Score: N/A
Revised Score: 73.95
Final Score: 85.69

(First Reaction: This is interesting. I've mentioned listening to the Greatest Hits albums a lot and I'm familiar with the Mike Hedges mix of this song from the second Greatest Hits collection. They're pretty similar, it's not like the Mike Mix radically changed the song, but now the original version just sounds off... it's like, I've been listening to Mike Mix for so many years that the slight differences aren't significant enough to provide a whole new experience, but are noticeable enough to make it feel like it's performed incorrectly.

...I'm not sure where I want to put this. I quite like the version of the song I'm familiar with and I don't know if I can properly separate my feelings to judge this version fairly. I'm also not sure if I can cheat and sub in a link to Mike Mix--it's like the first ranking topic where the wrong version of "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter" was nominated (love the music video version, not so much the album version). I'll... throw this version of Gone into the 57 point range and figure it out later.)

!The vocals just feel so much weaker with this version of the audio... Mike Hedges Mix gets 73.95 points, original mix stays at 57.41 points. Personally, I think the Mike Mix is close enough in composition and length that it'd be silly to treat them as completely different songs and I'm just going to score and rank that version of the track instead. If Jesse insists, I'll use the *actually nominated version* like a *normal person* and take the points back, but for now, the 73.95 stands.

[Final Thoughts: Ohh, I do kinda love the Mike Hodges mix and it's been long enough that I'm back to wanting to play this version every day. The original song... exists? More power to those of you who prefer it and I'll score based on it if I have to, but after listening to Mike Hodges mix hundreds of times, I just cannot get into the original one. It's like 90% similar, with that 10% difference being just enough to be strangely unpleasant... it's a fine enough rendition (being 90% similar to a song I love is hard to actually dislike), but I love this version and I'm just going to use it instead unless actively forced to.

...Blatant cheating, but again, I kinda do what I want so long as what I want gives the song the highest score possible.]

[Later: Actually, while it has taken over a year, I think I'm starting to see the value in the nominated version. It's definitely a lot quieter, but there's an almost seductive quality to his voice in places. I may actually kinda prefer this spin on it today? I mean, usually I vastly prefer the louder, harsher sound to Mike's mix, but I find the new (to me) twist on the song gives this version a minor edge over the one I've listened to so often.

Which... kinda defeats the purpose of cheating by switching the links... ah well. Either way, this was the third controversial move where I blatantly cheated with what was actually nominated... until I... used what was nominated... and I could just REDACT all this idiocy and pretend it never happened since it didn't make any difference anyway & I feel pretty good about having either version of the song in #91st Place, but I'll keep it up. It at least results in this having a long writeup. ...Not a good one, not a coherent one, but a long one.]

============================

Man I am so glad you loved The Shower Scene as much as you did (I mean I pretty much expected it since you nominated it for said RTT but nevertheless). I did wish I nominated Hip to Be Scared maybe since it's easily my favorite in an album full of non-stop bangers, but glad you acknowledged it anyway.

Oof, two songs fell near to each another.

I really love the Grandma's verse too. Good taste.

As for Price and Son's Theme, it's also one of those musical songs that are not as often performed (outside of the actual shows themselves, of course; i.e. at concerts, TV, live events, etc.), so that's why I wanted to give it a spotlight. Glad you liked it a lot, even if it's not your favorite song from the soundtrack.

Snake5555555555 posted...

I did wish I nominated Hip to Be Scared maybe since it's easily my favorite in an album full of non-stop bangers, but glad you acknowledged it anyway.

I didn't mention it in the writeup, but I did get really into "Hip to Be Scared" when I was in my big metalcore kick last year. I practically had that song on an infinite loop, alongside "Bring Me the Horizon - 1x1" and "Motionless in White - Necessary Evil".

-

Two songs to start the day:

==================

#90: Fozzy - Judas (4:08):
https://youtu.be/lqURPBtGJzg

Nominator: Mega_Mana [4/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 90.00
Revised Score: 89.473
Final Score: 85.80

(First Reaction: This is probably one of the best wrestling themes ever created. It always gets a loud pop, the audience loves singing along to it and the way Chris & the music & audience are in perfect sync is always impressive. But there's also enough verses and lyrical content here that the song can stand on its own as an actual song, instead of something that only exists to get the crowd hyped up. Add in all the references to darkness, demons, and broken lives and you're left with a song that I'm basically guaranteed to love.

I do think the chorus repeats a bit too often at the end of the song which is probably the only thing holding it back from the absolute top tier, but I still love it.)

!...Is it weird that the song now sounds wrong to me without a crowd singing along?

[Final Thoughts: "Embraced by the darkness, I'm losing the light". Is it that easy for a lyric to get a song lots of extra points? Yes. More seriously, it's a song that checks a lot of boxes for me without feeling like a "checklist song" & I do really enjoy what's here. I think it's a bit overly reliant on repeating the chorus, so I don't quite want it to be at the highest tier, but the chorus is so fantastic that I don't exactly mind.]

==================

-continued; yes, we actually have one long enough that it can't fit in a post with anything else, we did occasionally type things-

============================

#89: The Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky (4:38):
https://youtu.be/56hqrlQxMMI

Nominator: Metalmind [10/25 Remaining]

Initial Score: 71.18
Revised Score: 71.18
Final Score: 82.40 [Upgraded to 86.00]

(First Reaction: Last year when I had a semi-joking stance against combining songs into one entry, we had Sirius + Eye in the Sky combined into one entry. This year, when I explicitly encourage combining such songs together, Eye in the Sky is nominated by itself. I appreciate the irony. (Please take this as the joke it was meant to be; I'm sure it's likely a coincidence and I enjoy revisiting past songs & I actually wished that I would have an organic way to segue into discussing last year's reaction to this song, so I'm really glad this is here. The irony just seemed funny.).

So, first, let's just go back to what I said about the extended version last topic because I don't have that much new to say about it:

===============

171: THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT - SIRIUS & EYE IN THE SKY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_NNCNDYEpU

Nominator: LOLIAmAnAlt (6/15)

Initial Score: 66.00 [#162]
Revised Score: 81.71 [#108]
Final Score: 73.80 [#171]

(First Thoughts: I feel I probably should play the "songs listed separately on the album are separate songs, so this is technically two nominations, even though Sirius is just an intro" card, but Ill allow it this time.)

Well, nothing said you couldn't edit two songs together into one long song and nominate it as a single entrant, so... I probably need to remember to close that loophole next year.

And this probably should have been placed in the R#s since Ive heard Eye in the Sky a hundred times and even nominated it at someone else's ranking topic, but I've almost never listened to it with Sirius as an intro, so it again squeezes by with a technicality.

Sirius: Has somehow become synonymous with sporting events, so its kinda difficult to think about anything else or properly judge it. Whatever meaning the song originally had has now been replaced with "Introducing YOUR [sports team]s starting lineup!!!!!" which is fine, I suppose? Its not something I mind, but Im not really into sports, and its just....weird going from sports music to Eye in the Sky.

And yes, I know, this wasn't written for sports, but that's just where we are now.

Eye in the Sky: An all time classic song, but I'm a tad burnt out on it. I had an obsession with it several years ago, but I've kinda listened to it enough for one lifetime? To a point that I don't really want to talk about it because I'm just tired of it now.

Originally had this at a much lower score due to being tired of it, but its still a great song, so I decided to bump it up the list a fair amount.

[Final Thoughts: I seem to have split the difference between the Initial and Revised Scores. It's still a song I kinda love, but since I'm tired of it, there's quite a few other songs I'd rather listen to more... so I don't really know where I want to rank it, exactly, but this feels like a fitting enough position.]

================

First: It's funny that I suggested taking an even harder stance against combining songs when I went the exact opposite direction. Even stranger is that by the time I wrote that, I was already bothered by my inability to combine certain songs together at that topic, leaving one to wonder why I was so committed to the bit when the bit was already having negative effects. *shrugs*

Second, I finally found out why I associate Sirius with sporting events! I didn't bring it up, but it bothered me that I knew the song was synonymous with sports introductions, but I hadn't seen a Chicago Bulls game to have learned it that way. So... if I never heard where it was associated with then how did I know that? Obviously, it had to be referenced and parodied in places, but when? The answer: Duckman, Season 3, Episode 15: "They Craved Duckman's Brain!"

To make a long story short, Duckman's brain is mutated and has the cure for cancer inside it. Hospitals want to murder Duckman, not to harvest the cure, but to ensure that cancer never be cured so that they can continue making massive profits off the sick and dying. The villain introduces everyone who profits off of cancer in a parody of the Chicago Bulls entrance, complete with a sound-alike of Sirius playing in the background.

(I can't post the episode for you, but if you have your own legal copy of the episode, skip to 16:40 and see what I mean. Or just watch the whole episode! Duckman was tremendously influential for me. Its politics and morals are ludicrously heavyhanded, as you probably surmised from the above paragraph, but I got into reruns of the show at the time I was mentally developing enough to realize that media could even have meanings. So, very much in the right place and time for it to shape my mind, for better or worse.)

So... thank you for nominating this so I had an excuse to share that story. I really wanted to talk about Duckman and establish that added context to my knowledge of Sirius, but I really didn't think there'd be an organic way to discuss the topic.

Third, I think I prefer hearing this with Sirius added to the intro, so I'll put this a few points below the combined version.)

!Still a great song and I am tremendously relieved that someone gave me a chance to tell that Duckman story, but I still feel like I've heard it enough times at this point.

[Final Thoughts: I feel like the fact that Duckman is responsible for giving me the capacity for rational thought rather explains so much about my life. Anyhow, a few notes:

1: For those of you who weren't here last year, the R-Numbers (often shortened to R#) were songs I was very familiar with before they were nominated. I basically divided the nominated songs into New Songs and Very Familiar Songs. While "Eye in the Sky" was very familiar, "Sirius + Eye in the Sky" wasn't, which made it difficult to decide where to place the song. It wound up in the main ranking instead of the R#s.

1a: Incidentally, there's no clear answer as to what R# stands for. It just came to me at three AM one morning and stuck. It's theorized to possibly be a Mega Man reference as Dr. Light robots tend to be known as the R Number series (due to Japanese L/R issues causing them to be "Dr. Right Series" robots) & two albums of Mega Man songs were in the R-Number category... but any actual reason was lost by the time I fully woke up, so who knows?

2: I kinda love this track again? It's officially been long enough that I'm back to being fairly into it. Not all-consuming love like when I was obsessed with it, but this is pretty great.]

============================

Eight more songs to close out the day, featuring a double drop from Raka in this post:

-

============================

#88: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (London Cast) - Jacob and Sons / Joseph's Coat (5:31):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2A4bWp3stisVzkijl5QIYT?si=d1fa5525ad74404e

Nominator: @Raka_Putra [6/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.16
Revised Score: 67.19
Final Score: 80.13 [Upgraded to 82.21] [Upgraded to 86.19]

(First Reaction: Throughout all these topics, I've always somewhat wondered if a song from this musical would be nominated and how I'd react if it were. You see, I've had a very slight interest in seeing the play for basically all of my life. I can recall seeing a poster for the show when I was quite young; the details are lost, I could not tell you what was on the poster or where I might have saw it, but the title stuck out in my mind in a most mesmerizing way. I never told anyone I wanted to see it or asked any questions about it, but I truly wondered what it was.

At some point, I noticed how many old films were proudly advertised as being in technicolor and came to the conclusion that this "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" must have been a film created to show off the color technology and decided that it probably had no value in the modern world since color movies were hardly a big deal any longer. This was obviously an incredibly stupid thing to believe, but in my defense, I was a child and only had the title to work with.

Even later, I'd grow up and realize it was at least vaguely Biblical and that pretty well killed any interest I had in actually seeing it. Still, there was always a faint wonder of what exactly the production was... certainly nothing I'd seek out, but if it were presented to me, I suspect I'd have had to watch it. For the sake of resolving the mystery, if nothing else.

Finally, after an eternity, i have now listened to one version of one song! It's... actually pretty good. Not quite worth all the wonder and mystery from when I was really young, but better than most other versions of myself thought it would be.)

!It's a bit hard to separate my joy of finally learning *something* about this play from the quality of the song itself; like, do I really like the song or do I just like all the memories wrapped up with what the song repesents? Not that objectivity ever meant anything to me anyway....

[Final Thoughts: I kinda love this nomination. ...Granted, a literal entire liftime of buildup gives it a bit of an unfair advantage, but who cares?]

[Later: No, I don't think it's time to eliminate this just yet. Adding another two points.]

============================

-

========================

#87: Serj Tankian - Forget Me Knot (4:26):
https://open.spotify.com/track/4NnVEiBrnZksqqctkxbIzv?si=62f8882b30e54fdc

Nominator: Murphiroth [1/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 62.10
Revised Score: 70.00
Final Score: 86.25

(First Reaction: It's cheating to say I'll pass on posting a first reaction, but I'm going to pass anyway.)

!I'm just not interested in the lyrics here, but I really, really like his performance on the verses in this track. The quiet power is different than what I usually here from him, but it works brilliantly and I love it.

[Final Thoughts: This song needs the standard disclaimer that the subject matter is too serious to get into here. I cannot contribute to a discussion about middle eastern peace & Jerusalem, so... moving along; this is a damn good song and I think I kinda love it.]

[Later: I absolutely love his voice in the first two verses. There's a very restrained power behind his voice, a very quiet & sorrowful rage that is magnifique & him at his absolute best. The choruses are.... nice enough, but feel relatively standard in comparison to the frankly outstanding notes the song started with.]

========================

-

============================

#86: Jimin - Lie (3:35):
https://youtu.be/-ThId6ZWqsE

Nominator: Kateee [2/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 73.00
Revised Score: 81.08
Final Score: 75.00000005 [Upgraded to 78.409] [Placed Into Void] [Upgraded to 81.08] [Upgraded to 86.30]

(First Reaction:

Pull me from this hell
I cant be free from this pain
Save me, I am being punished

Yep, that'll definitely work for me in terms of bluntness. It's also a geniunenly good, catchy pop song which helps. Good song.)

!Great lyrics, catchy performance. Definitely one of the better KPop songs that have been nominated.

[Final Thoughts: Top-tier KPop, though I'm not totally in love with it like before. Not sure why not; still, definitely a song that belongs a fair ways into the "really like" tier.]

[Later: I'm much, much closer to enjoying this as strongly as I did the second time around, so I'm adding another three-or-so points to the score.]

[Later: Setting this song aside for a bit as well.]

[Caught In A Void: The chorus is incredibly catchy and I've had this song on my mind all day, so I think I'll take this back up to its Revised Score.]

============================

-

================

#85: Fire-Toolz - In The Pinewaves / guardian angel bear [3:58]:
https://youtu.be/Nv1fczbTV1Q

Nominator: TunnelScene [3/27 Remaining]

Initial Score: 74.19
Revised Score: 86.448
Final Score: 86.448

(First Reaction: The song features an odd combination of chaotic music, relaxing music, trippy music, and Nekogoblikon-esque metal & almost inhuman lyrics. The result is something that is as fascinating as it is hard to talk about, though my favorite part had to be the relaxing saxophone portion that bridges Pinewaves & angel bear.)

!Still an odd combination of styles, but I'm more into that strangeness tonight than the first time around.

[Final Thoughts: A very complex acid trip that twists you in knots as you try in vain to comprehend what's happening. A true delight to experience and it goes by incredibly fast--feels like the song is much shorter than it actually is.]

================

-

============================

#84: Six - Don't Lose Ur Head (4:05):
https://open.spotify.com/track/6sUQqRmOcRyAG5M3EWXzr3?si=6defb2ca19914e56

Nominator: @Raka_Putra [5/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 61.04
Revised Score: 61.04
Final Score: 73.33 [Upgraded to 82.11] [Upgraded to 86.60]

(First Reaction: So... a modern pop musical concert led by Henry the VIII's wives, huh? I'm oddly tempted to watch that. Shame there's been no theatrical release or official streaming version, I'd probably drop everything to go listen to it right now were it possible to do so.)

!It's odd that this song makes me want to see the entire play, but still only gets 60 points... but it's fairly difficult to reach this tier at all, so I suppose it makes more sense than it appears to. Kinda.

[Final Thoughts: I'll feel better after moving this song up at least one tier.]

[Later: I refuse to believe there's a universe where this got less than 80 points and shall make myself believe all three scores were somehow typos.]

============================

-continued-

And a double drop from CJones in the next three songs, which brings us to our next unfortunate elimination:

-

===================

#83: DIablo Swing Orchestra - Speed Dating An Arsonist [5:30]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHeMHkPyNQ0&list=PLbqs-W3v0JokCip1yCvbDS5Diki_yhvvC&index=4

Nominator: CJones [1/18 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Revised Score: 80.00 [upgraded to 90.00]
Final Score: 84.76 [Upgraded to 85.76] [Upgraded to 86.61]

(First Reaction: I love the choruses & I can get behind the verses, but the prolonged intro & outro sectiions feel a bit tacked on... like I get really excited and into the song, then the lyrics I like stop and the song just kinda keeps going for almost two full minutes.)

!A 90 point song trapped between an intro & outro that are both sub-50 points. The infectuous, chaotic energy of twisted romance causes the main part of this song to be absolute top-tier, but I'm not entirely sure how highly I want to score a song that gets kinda boring when it keeps going for so long after the parts I want to hear have ended...

...of course, this isn't really an objective ranking and there are certainly some songs that I love in which I need to manually skip to the next track once the good parts are over... ehh, let's go ahead and move it up one tier.

[Later: Actually, I think a little chaos & incineration could really liven up the highest tier ao let's have a little fun and set the joint on fire, shall we?]

[Final Thoughts: I do kinda love this song, but the intro & outro are really a bit much and the sound mix does hurt this track a bit... I absolutely love the idea of this highly animated, incredibly retro, twisted love song inferno -but- if I want to skip almost half of the track then I don't know I can honestly say it's at the highest tier.

...Though it's definitely in the conversation and I might move this back up later. We'll see when we get here.]

[Later: In the end, it is the outro that holds this song back. I don't see why the track doesn't start fading out at 3:38 after the kiss. We've had a lot of fun, there's a final kiss of death, the song is completely out of lyrics and ideas, it's just a natural stopping point... and then it just keeps playing the same little bit for almost two minutes after things should have ended. I do love the main part of the song and want to move it back up the list, but we're kinda at the "I love this song -but-" part of the list where tracks like this & The Shower Scene fall because these flaws--minor as they are--make them a bit easier to cut than anything remaining.]

===================

-

========================

#82: Dorian Electra, Faris Badwan - Iron Fist (2:30):
https://open.spotify.com/track/10JxT3OyvJp2e14A7b8gYK?si=253059d84d03494d

Nominator: Bane [4/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 74.27
Revised Score: 80.00
Final Score: 80.56 [Upgraded to 81.99] [Upgraded to 86.64]

(First Reaction: I like what this song is doing, though I'm obviously not in the mood to talk about BDSM. It's a fun, dark pop song though and I equally enjoy both vocalists verses, which is rare.)

!Score presented without comment.

[Final Thoughts: Like I said, BDSM songs seem to be getting pretty decent scores this year and I have absolutely no interest in questioning or analyzing this outcome. Do wish the song were longer though... this feels like it ends way too quickly.]

[Later: Point and a half more.]

========================

-

===================

#81: Caligula's Horse - Salt [7:41[:
https://youtu.be/qxApCWfTvqA

Nominator: CJones [0/18 Remaining]

Initial Score: 62.81
Revised Score: 63.01
Final Score: 60.00 [Upgraded to 62.81] [Upgraded to 67.017] [Upgraded to 72.39] [Upgraded to 74.703] [Upgraded to 75.00000002] [Upgraded to something] [Something set to 80.114] [Upgraded to 80.1149] [Upgraded to 82.473] [Upgraded to 87.00]

(First Reaction: I've been looking forward to listening to this one since it was nominated. One of this band's other songs, Graves, was nominated back at my first topic. I found it to be an incredible journey that was too emotional draining to listen to often, but still an incredibly welcome nomination and an example of how to do epic music correctly. I've been very curious to see if this song could live up to the first's lofty heights.

I wouldn't say this song was a disappointment (I like it, enough for it to rise above the clump of 60 point songs), but it's not as fascinating. It's an optimistic and inspiring look at suicidal thoughts, desperately seeking the strength to make it through one more night. It's good subject matter and well written & performed, though it doesn't quite resonate with me like Bring Me the Horizon's "Doomed" which was more 'things are dark and there was never any light to begin with, but fuck it' learning to live with the depression than this song's 'hold on for one more day' message.

...And now I'm kinda seeing this as the progressive metal version of Wilson Philllips' "Hold On"". Huh. That particular song was oddly inspirational and helped me during certain events I'd rather not get into. Not sure if this sudden accidental association with that song helps Salt or not... will have to think about that when it's time for the Revised Score.)

!One of the few intentionally inspirational songs to make it above the 60 point barrier. Well done.

[Final Thoughts: I still like this song, though I'm not connecting with its message as much as usual. Moving this down a bit so it can join the Neo Clump.]

[Later: Not sure why this song dropped so far down. I'm going to reset this to the Initial Score value, as I'm sure it will fit in better up there than it does with the Neo Clump.]

[Later: Ahh, this is where that "Bring me my tomorrow" chorus is from... I've had this chorus stuck in my head for days, but didn't remember any of the rest of the song nor where that chorus actually came from. Giving this one quite a few bonus points for that chorus.]

[Later: Let's be honest, I'm not letting any song with this chorus fall before the 70 point tier, so let's just move it up there now.]

[Later: Two more points. Really good chorus.]

[And Later: With apologies. This does have a fantastic chorus and, for being an intentionally inspirational song, isn't too far off the mark. "I can make it to the morning" has obvious shades of holding on for one more day which is a sentiment that certainly has a lot of powerful memories associated with it. None that I wish to share--even I have limits to how much I'll share publicly with strangers--but it certainly offers a lot to think about.

The outro isn't quite for me, but I do see the appeal. The assurance that you are more than the scars and the damage is... not what I'm looking for, but I would never insult it or deny its ability to help people. It has a good message and the song is quite catchy. So I do really like it.]

[Still Later: Changed mind; was going to eliminate this, but I'm moving this song aside for a little while.]

[Later: Yeah, I think I'll move this up a tier. This type of inspiration isn't exactly for me, but the flashbacks and introspection it inspires should be commended & I do rather love the chorus.]

[Later: Microscopic score boost to briefly reorganize things.]

[Later: Well, let us go with two more points.]

===================

Elimination #4: CJones

Lowest Scoring Song:

Diablo Swing Orchestra - Malign Molonogues [53.725]

Highest Scoring Song

Caligula's Horse - Salt [87.00]

Average Score: 65.00

An average score that's a whole number? I don't think that's ever happened before. You had a surprisingly well-rounded set of nominations, thanks in part due to how much variety there was in Diablo Swing Orchestra's album: While they weren't all hits, there weren't any tracks I disliked & it featured five songs at the 60 point level and two 80 point songs, so I'd say it's a pretty high scoring album. (Again, my critera for a good album is at least two 60 point songs, so this appeals to me enough that it demolishes that criteria.)

The wildcard picks that weren't from the album are a bit harder to discuss, though I will say that they were all obviously quality songs. While epic & inspirational aren't exactly two of my favorite descriptors, the songs were entertaining enough that I liked them all anyway. And I still don't know what to make of Genesis, which is neat.Thank you for taking all the time to come out to a different board, nominate a large number of songs, and share some personal stories about their significance!

-

-------------------------------

Average Score Chart

CJones: 65.00
hotdogturtle: 64.25
Kopazzynth 58.99
Shonen_Bat: 55.13

--------------------------------------------------

-

And the list of Post Topic Ranking songs, since there's rarely enough room to post it anywhere:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ZA'LIST 2023 EDITION (in no particular order):

UF8: "there actually is another song i probably 100% would've picked had it been fully out then though that also has a harumaki gohan-esque music video, remind me to bring it up if/when the ranking ends in another year or so lol"

The Great Escape by Seventh Wonder

Try something else by Thomas Dimuzio and 5uu's

Also something else by Touche Amore

Try something else by BT

Exit Strategy of a Wrecking Ball (Diablo Swing Orchestra)

Sunbather by Please Remember

The Birthday Massacre - Happy Birthday

The Music Man - Seventy Six Trombones

Deafheaven - Dream House + Irrestible

Make Them Suffer - Doomswitch

clipping. - Story 2
Kanye West - Spaceship
El-P - Dear Sirs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS_Q7RUtVL4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6_Uy6HBAJY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw6hANHeIaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuRZYB9EEZM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLlsWpxvmgc

https://youtu.be/D_Jh6upswd0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-uWOVP5q0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbH1BVXywY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCLsqg05boo

https://youtu.be/paepYX9E6iU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUS-_CaMftE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=899kstdMUoQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JoC99uBCfo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFbQ-Mewfw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_wfhfErbSE

https://youtu.be/_YnwnxSE2UA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOuNKm4ApZY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_X6UNPq2rY

Electric Callboy - Tekno ( Pump It, [the one that might count as a censor bypass], Spaceman, Hurrikan )

Lights - The Listening (Album)

Blues Traveler - Four (Album)

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

Zektbach:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=RzjNof-Tj3M&list=PLSkBT8UcCTh_QUTOs4rLUnd61I43T2P1c&index=1

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Happy to see a U2 song from Pop make the top 100. I think its a really underrated album personally, which a lot of people understandably have trouble connecting with because its all over the place in genre.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

[Later: I refuse to believe there's a universe where this got less than 80 points and shall make myself believe all three scores were somehow typos.]

Well, don't lose ur head over it. ;)

Glad it's another song that made you want to look into the full musical! It's still very active on both Broadway and West End, so a live recorded performance might not be coming soon. ...well, an official one at least.

Huh I missed the part where Jacob and Sons/Joseph's Coat also dropped. Congrats on finally checking it out, even if the song seemingly didn't entice you to check out the rest of the musical. It's basically very family-friendly and quite camp. It's like a church play kinda deal. And although I'm not famiiar with the Bible, I could enjoy it okay. It was not too preachy.

interesting that a biblical song did so well in this topic!

There will be an unplanned day off tomorrow, as I've once again backed myself into a corner. I'm moving most of the remaining 80 point songs up a tier, so I need a moment to decide how far into the final tier I want them & need to reacquaint myself with some of the songs already at said tier to try and work out exactly when things are being cut.

This also means that today will see the end of the 80 point tier. For now, a quick response to those posts & then two songs to start the day off:

Raka_Putra posted...

Congrats on finally checking it out, even if the song seemingly didn't entice you to check out the rest of the musical

Mr_Lasastryke posted...

interesting that a biblical song did so well in this topic!

I do still somewhat want to check Joseph out, it just takes a bit more effort to get legal access to than Rent. Last I checked, there is a version of Joseph starring Donny Osmond available on a Broadway-themed streaming service; I like Donny well enough and I'm not opposed to watching it, but signing up for a whole service just for one show takes effort. Rent was on HBO Max which I already had, so I just had to push a button. Much easier to get that one.

And I can enjoy Biblical music! I still praise Gethsemane from Jesus Christ Superstar on a regular basis. It's just a "case-by-case" basis, I suppose.

-

And now, two songs:

-

====================

#80: The Supremes - Baby Love (2:36):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l37QH86mowQ

Nominator: rwlh [3/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 73.46
Revised Score: 72.55
Final Score: 83.26 [Upgraded to 87.00000001]

(First Reaction: A classic 60s song that I enjoy quite a bit, though I wouldn't say it's one of my absolute favorites. I tend to like everything I've heard by Diana Ross (with and without The Supremes), but I can't think of any tracks that I really love. Dionne Warwick had Walk on By & Martha Reeves had Nowhere to Run, but Diana Ross--as amazing and talented as she is--never had that one killer song that I became obsessed with. Possible there's one if I did a deep dive into her albums instead of just listening to the singles, but for now.. I like her (and quite like this song), but it's a bit below the 80 point tier.)

!Got very distracted when it was time to listen to this... took a detour to listen to "Where Did Our Love Go" and then I naturally had to follow that with "Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go"'s full version... man, the nine minute long version of that medley has a *long* bridge in the middle with absolutely nothing happening, doesn't it?

...Right, this topic is taking long enough even without these diversions... much easier to justify those detours back when I was putting in a full day;s worth of work, as opposed to now. *coughs*

Not much to really add to the nominated song though; heard it a million times, still really like it, not something I truly love though. I'll always be glad to hear it when it pops up.

[Final Thoughts: I kinda love this track tonight. No surprise since it's very much the type of song I listen to for fun these days, but I'm surprised it was so low on the list the first two times-]

====================

-

===================

#79: The Simpsons - Skinner & The Superintendent (Opening Main Theme Song) [0:18]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olyN7L8dbkY

Nominator: paulg [5/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 94.10
Revised Score: 92.17
Final Score: 87.55

(First Reaction: It is astounding how this song manages to perfectly capture the essences of both characters, while being as catchy and addicting as the greatest theme songs of all time, in under twenty seconds. Even more astounding is that this was practically a throw-away joke! The original script didn't even have lyrics, just a vague outline:

https://archive.ph/V0ZBI

And whichever writer had to come up with a theme to fit that outline absolutely nailed it. This theme still gets stuck in my head on a regular basis. Just an absolute masterpiece; that being said, I don't have quite as much personal memories of the episode (or The Simpsons) in general to bump this up to 100 points or have it take first place. It's brilliant and I love it though.)

!Not quite first place, but it's a hell of a lot closer to winning the title than you might have expected.

[Final Thoughts: This song has lived rent free in my mind ever since that episode first aired & still gets stuck in my head on a regular basis. But as memorable & catchy as it is, I think I'm a bit more drawn to everything else remaining these days... still, this score is so high that I'm pretty sure it'll have beaten over 700 songs to reach this point, so it's still absolutely fantastic. Just maybe not quite at the highest level at this exact moment.]

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Six more songs, featuring two more eliminated players, to close out the tier & the day:

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#78: Kings of Convenience - Peacetime Resistance [2:53]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZkXmgiavTw

Nominator: Lasa [0/14 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.74
Revised Score: 62.08
Final Score: 62.08 [Upgraded to 66.148] [Upgraded to 67.74] [Upgraded to 72.16] [Placed Into Void] [Upgraded to 81.16] [Upgraded to 87.60]

(First Reaction: The backing music is "fun travel music" that I vibe with. Lyrics are fine, though they don't really compliment the vibe I was getting from the audio...)

!If I just shut my brain off (it's easy, I never use it anyway) and avoid thinking, then it is fun travel music and it's fun to imagine bopping along to this on a train. Not at all what the song actually is, but I've hardly let that stop me before...

[Final Thoughts: The backing music almost reminds me of something, but I can't quite place it. Either way, I like this song, though I'm aware it's "for the wrong reasons" as the way the song *feels* is not what it's actually going for... but I find it relaxing and fun, so long as I ignore the actual words, so I enjoy it.]

[Later: I do like the music here quite a bit. Adding four more points to this track.]

[Later: A point and a half-ish extra for this song because I really do dig the "riding a train" vibes the backing music has.]

[Later: Yeah, I really like the backing music and atmosphere on this track. Going to go ahead and move it up a tier as well.]

[Later: Going to move this song aside for a while and decide on a score later.]

[Later: Yeah, I think I do kinda love this. Putting aside the lyrics (they're fine, don't get me wrong, they're just not what I'm here for), this type of mellow groove is very much something that I could use more of. I just really dig this type of tune.]

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Elimination #5: Mr_Lasastryke

Lowest Scoring Song:

Miles Davis - Prince of Darkness [36.64]

Highest Scoring Song:

Kings of Convenience - Peacetime Resistance [87.60]

Average Score: 59.49

Thank you for your first set of official nominations! It was nice to get a chance to listen to a variety of Zappa's music, as I'm often intrigued by his work but rarely take the time to seek any out. Also, not exactly relevant, but since Zappa contributed music to the first season of Duckman there's an almost personal connection to his work. It was also nice to try some actual jazz, even though we mostly just confirmed that it's not quite my genre... still, I only actively disliked one of the songs, so it's not as though I hate the genre or anything.

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Average Score Chart

CJones: 65.00
hotdogturtle: 64.25
Lasa: 59.49
Kopazzynth 58.99
Shonen_Bat: 55.13

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#77: Aimee Mann - Wise Up (3:31):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZITkwcFe9s

Nominator: rwlh [2/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 73.44
Revised Score: 75.13
Final Score: 82.26 [Upgraded to 87.63]

(First Reaction: It's kind of funny. This song sounded familiar and I couldn't place why. Sure, the song was haunting and the type of vaguely depressing that I enjoy (ending a song on the message "just give up" is a bold choice), so it's definitely something I would listen to, but why do I know it? I've never listened to the soundtrack of Jerry Maguire and never saw Magnolia, so WHY??

...Imagine my shock that, after years of making incessant references to Community, I actually needed Google to point out that this song was used back in the first season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14qWUYu1ydg

(I'd add context to the scene, but I enjoy imagining how confused people are at this point.)

I'd try to defend myself by saying that it's been a while since I've seen the first season and the song doesn't entirely fit the montage, so while the scene & episode are memorable, it's a bit hard to recall what song was playing during it... but it's still a disappointing failure on my part. Johnbobb probably would have recognized the song and been a better fan.)

!*insert generic praise for the song's vibes here*

[Final Thoughts: I kinda love this song. It's heavy and blunt in the best meaning of the way I use those words to describe music.]

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#76: carolesdaughter - Trailer Trash (2:34):
https://youtu.be/iWhHBaZ7pcU

Nominator: Snake [2/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 100
Revised Score: 82.16
Final Score: 82.16 [Upgraded to 85.175] [Upgraded to 86.85] [Upgraded to 87.73]

(First Reaction: "I hate my past and my shoes are old and ugly, but they still seem to last" may be the most relatable lyric of all time. So, you know what? I'm going to jump this song directly to 100 points, marking it as a candidate for first place. I'm not entirely sure if it'll hold up on repeat listens as the rest of the song is.... less relevant to me personally, but hey, we'll find out when we get there.)

!That's definitely a great line.

[Final Thoughts: I point out a lot of very direct and blunt lines, but I don't think you can get more direct than just directly saying "i hate my past". Which, obviously, I very much do sooo... enjoy having a bunch of free points & a song that can't drop below the "kinda love" tier! I don't think I have this as a serious candidate for first place any longer; that line is great and I do kinda love the entire song, but none of the other lines hit as hard & (while I do like like her) I t think there are some songs I prefer on a purely musical level as well. Still, no way this gets less than 80 points, so still quite well done.]

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#75: Alumael - Shinkonsui/Deep Coma (4:05):
https://youtu.be/DY8bo8pd4gw

Nominator: UF8 [2/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 73.00
Revised Score: 83.04
Final Score: 83.04 [Upgraded to 87.19] [Upgraded to 88.40]

(First Reaction: An incredibly relaxing and soothing song, for the most part. The instrumental break starting around the 2:40 mark doesn't quite work in my opinion, it's more "wub wub" than the rest of the song & I find the singer's voice quite pleasant, so I get a little annoyed when the song drops all the aspects that I enjoyed. Thankfully, that section is quite short lived and doesn't drag the score down too much.)

!Those wubs are still not something I go for, but his deep and sorrowful voice carry this song.

[Final Thoughts: It's a shame a song this good has so few views. I kinda love this: It feels like the perfect song to listen to in a car on a rainy night--which is basically the best type of ambiance in existence for personal reasons, and his voice is the perfect compliment to the song's vibes.]

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